Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/194



XIII. A SURVIVAL OF ABSOLUTISM
THOSE who view the modern state as a purely predatory organization, for exploitation within and without, point to the methods, practices and results of diplomacy as one of the plainest indi- cations of the sinister nature of the political state. Such criticism cannot be safely brushed aside as utterly unreasonable; it should rather call forth a searching inquiry as to whether, as a matter of fact, the conduct of foreign affairs could not and should not be brought into greater consonance with genuinely democratic principles, and be placed on the sound basis of well-informed pub- lic support.

No matter what opinion one may hold with re- spect to the necessity of secret diplomacy, it must be recognized that this practice involves a very narrow conception of the active scope of democ- racy. It is in fact a historical survival from the period of the absolutist state; or in other words, that aspect of the modern state which deals with