party policy is the resultant direction of progress of all the party
electors, and therefore represents their organized opinion. Now, bear in
mind that the true direction of progress is not known, and can only be
found out by constant experiment directed by the most far-seeing and
capable minds. It is the means of carrying on this experiment which
party government provides. The party representing the organized opinion
of the majority has, rightly, complete control of the direction of
progress so long as it remains in a majority. But, although deliberation
is the work of many, execution is the work of one. Hence the creation of
a small committee of the party in power--the cabinet--associated with
the leader of the party, who becomes for the time being the Prime
Minister, the cabinet ministers being jointly responsible for the
control of administration and the initiation of measures for the public
good. But an organized minority is quite as essential to progress as an
organized majority--not merely to oppose, but to criticise and expose
the errors of the party in power, and to supplant it when it ceases to
possess the confidence of the country. Hence progress under party
government may be compared to a zigzag line, in which the changes in
direction correspond to changes in ministry. By this mutual action and
alternation of parties every vote cast has, in the long run, an equal
influence in guiding progress. The only justification for majority rule
sanctioned by free government is that when two parties differ as to what
is best for the whole people the majority shall prevail, and party
government tends to realize this condition. But direct government by the
people offers no check whatever on the power of the majority, which is
as absolute as that of the Czar of Russia. As Calhoun, the American
statesman, writes in his "Disquisition on Government," "the principle by
which constitutional governments are upheld, is _compromise_, that of
absolute governments is _force_!" Now, the significance of party
government as a guarantee of free government lies in this: that party