Page:Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - Lessons of the Revolution (1918).djvu/11

 be tersely stated that the efficacy of a representative is inversely proportional to the numeric strength of the constituency represented.

Viewed from this angle it is obvious why an order of things that has become detrimental to the people at large can be perpetuated by a «representative» government which has degenerated into a tool of the  The history of the War is very instructive in this, as in many other respects. It is now clear as day how, the  the class owning and dominating the economic apparatus in all countries, owned also the representative government, and through it tried to perpetuate secret diplomacy, financial speculation, capitalistic exploitation of the masses, all factors inevitably leading to both internal and external wars—and all this in the name of the People.

In the first place the Soviet is a  body, of the people and with the people. A member of the Soviet represents no more than about  He can be at any time. replaced, he is always in sight—no invisibles allowed. Furthermore, the Soviet works «centripetally»—the central body is controlled by the periphery. In this respect the Soviet government may be compared to a central meteorological bureau, whose usefulness and efficacy, whose very —is determined by the workings of the local weather bureaus.