This proposal
is only logical when coupled with the Initiative, by which a direct
popular vote could compel parliament to pass any measure desired by the
majority of voters; otherwise its object is merely obstructive. The
third method is the supersession of parliament by the action of the
executive. The difficulties which Liberal measures have experienced in
the House of Lords, and the impossibility of the House of Commons
dealing by debate with the increasing complexities of national
business, have encouraged a tendency in Liberal governments to entrust
to their departments decisions which trench upon the legislative
functions of parliament. The trend of hostile opinion is to regard
parliament as an unnecessary middleman, and to advocate in its stead a
sort of plebiscitary bureaucracy, a constitution under which
legislation drafted by officials would be demanded, sanctioned, or
rejected by direct popular vote, and would be discussed, like the
Insurance Bill, in informal conferences outside, rather than inside,
parliament; while administration by a vast army of experts would be
partially controlled by popularly elected ministers; for socialists
waver between their faith in human equality and their trust in the
superman. Others think that the milder method of Devolution, or "Home
Rule all round," would meet the evils caused by the congestion of
business, and restore to the Mother of Parliaments her time-honoured
function of governing by debate.
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