These are the principal encroachments made by the Government upon
the autonomy of the party. The details are endless. The election
laws of New York fill 330 printed pages. It is little wonder that
American parties are beginning to study the organization of
European parties, such as the labor parties and the social
democratic parties, which have enlisted a rather fervent party
fealty. These are propagandist parties and require to be active
all the year round. So they demand annual dues of their members
and have permanent salaried officials and official party organs.
Such a permanent organization was suggested for the National
Progressive party. But the early disintegration of the party made
impossible what would have been an interesting experiment. After
the election of 1916, Governor Whitman of New York suggested that
the Republican party choose a manager and pay him $10,000 a year
and have a lien on all his time and energy. The plan was widely
discussed and its severest critics were the politicians who would
suffer from it. The wide-spread comment with which it was
received revealed the change that has come over the popular idea
of a political party since the State began forty years ago to
bring the party under its control.

But flexibility is absolutely essential to a party system that
adequately serves a growing democracy. And under a two-party
system, as ours is probably bound to remain, the independent
voter usually holds the balance of power. He may be merely a
disgruntled voter seeking for revenge, or an overpleased voter
seeking to maintain a profitable status quo, or he may belong to
that class of super-citizens from which mugwumps arise. In any
case, the majorities at elections are usually determined by him.