Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/89

 A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW OF SOVEREIGNTY 7$

A primary-election law of this kind does not lessen the hold of parties upon the hearts of the people. It rather, as with the official ballot, turns the emphasis upon persuasion instead of coercion, and so increases the devotion to party and the acqui- escence of the minority in the leadership of the majority. Neither does it deprive parties of their eminent leadership which has justified its position by the decisive criterion, success. The same abilities of leadership, instead, are made subservient to the party as a whole rather than to the demands of a faction in the party or to the love of power on the part of their fortunate possessors.

Thus primary-election laws are one of the steps away from the early dread of political parties toward their legalization as a constituent of the governing machinery. Only when recognized as such can they be controlled in the interests of the ethical ideals of the state. They have in themselves what larger patriotism does not always possess, the powerful motive of self-interest. Their so-called principles are mainly the common self-interest of their members. This is their constantly impelling force. This is their persuasive energy that gets results. The problem of politics is how to direct this self-interest for the common good. At first the problem was attacked negatively, the endeavor being to prevent one party from getting unfair advantage over the other. Next the attack was positive, in the interests of the people at large, endeavoring through the official ballot to deprive parties of those artificial and factitious means of success which depend only upon the machinery of organization. Later the problem is the internal organization of the parties themselves, the legalized primary, the very heart of the party situation. The party primary is peculiar to American self-government. The primary is democratic in its origin. It has become oligarchical through the necessity of organization. The problem of politics is to recognize the organization as necessary and then so to order its coercive conditions and terms as to make it an agent for securing equal persuasive opportunities for all its members and all citizens.