Book Review: Democratic Government and Politics
| Author | C. B. Ferguson |
| Published date | 01 September 1947 |
| Date | 01 September 1947 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070204700200314 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
International
Journal
DEMOCRATIC
GOVERNMENT
AND
POLITICS.
By
J.
A.
Corry.
1946.
(Toronto:
University
of Toronto
Press.
468
pp.
$3.75,
members
$3.20)
DEMOCRATIC
GOVERNMENT
AND
POLITICS
is
the
first
volume
in
the
Canadian
Government
Series
which
is designed
to
bring
together
under
the
auspices
of
the
University
of
Toronto
Press
outstanding
books
dealing
with
the
government
of
Canada.
In it,
Professor
Corry
relates
the
political
institutions
of
Canada
to
those
of
Great
Britain
and
the
United
States,
and
deals
with
significant
trends
in
the
operation
of
the
political
systems
of
these countries.
In
this
comparative study
of
governments, Professor
Corry describes
constitutions
and
depicts
other
devices
designed
for
the
establishment
and
preservation
of
civil
liberty.
He
sets
forth
the
place
and
importance
of
the principles
of
the
rule
of
law,
of
limited
government
and
of
the
separation
of powers.
He
deals
with
unitary
and
federal
government,
with
the. executive,
the
legislature,
and
the
judiciary,
with
the
civil
service,
and
the
administrative
process,
and
with the
relation
of
local
government
and party
politics
to
the
effective
functioning
of
democracy.
He also
treats
of
the
problems of
representation
and
of
continental states,
of
advisory committees
and pressure
groups,
and
of
the
centralizing
tendencies
which have
been
accentuated
by
the
war.
The
preservation
of
democracy
is,
as Aristotle
stated,
a
far
greater
difficulty
than
its
mere
establishment.
In
this
connection.,
the
transition
from
the
"negative"
to
the
"positive"
state,
and
the
challenge from
dictatorship,
have
incited
a
stimulating
discussion
of
the relative
merits
of democracy
and
dictatorship.
The
same
factors
have
also
impelled
a
re-examination
of
the
very
bases
of democracy.
Today
it
is
the
fashion
to
refer
to
"the
crisis of
democracy."
When
the main,
lines
of
the
constitutions
of
Great
Britain,
the
United
States,
and
Canada
were
laid
down
in
the
eighteenth
century, the
r6le
which
governments
could
play
was
physically limited
by
the
means
of
communication
and
transport,
and
by
the
productiveness
of
the
economic
system.
But
with
the
spread
of
the
Industrial
Revolution
and technological development,
and
the
challenge
to
the
doctrine
of
laissez-faire,
governments have
taken,
on
new
functions.
This
burgeoning
of
the
activities
of
government
and
its
attendant
centralizing
tendencies
have
imposed
great
strains
on
the
constitutions
of
democratic
countries.
The
elaboration
of
new
and
effective
controls
has
not,
Corry
states,
kept
pace
with
the
growing
concentration
of
power. Consequently,
the
problem
now
is
the
reconcili-
ation
of democracy
with
massive
governmental
operations.
The
reasons
which
justify
the conferment
of
power
are,
as
James
Mill
remarked,
also
reasons
for
the
creation
of
safeguards
against
its
abuse. In
this
matter,
Professor
Corry
concludes
with
the
warning
that
much
caution
will
have
to
be
exercised
in
adding
still
further
to
the
positive
functions
of
government.
This
is
a
timely and
useful
book
for
every
Canadian
citizen.
It
affords
perspective
for
the
consideration
of
"bureaucracy,"
of
"government
by
order-in-council"
and
of
the
development
of
the administrative
process.
272
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