Democratic Institutions and Supranational Organization in Western Europe

• Published date: 01 September 1958
• Date: 01 September 1958
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295801100318
• Author: Dell G. Hitchner
• Subject Matter: Articles

703
ing contemporary political demands with but relatively modest alteration,
if any, of existing decision-making and administrative processes.
The political demands of a democratic society are rarely extreme. The
conservative tendencies of the &dquo;common man&dquo; have often been obstacles to
radical reformers. His values, furthermore, are not only limited in imagina-
tion but are also strongly utilitarian. As such they are not only open to ad-
justment through accommodation but can be said to demand the processes
of democratic government to accomplish that accommodation. It is elitist
moral imperatives that are more likely to overburden the institutions of
democracy or overthrow them. Unfortunately the literature on planning
and other similar positive functions of modern government tends to be cast
in such quasi-Platonic terms, rather than in the pragmatic terms appropriate
to democracy, thus obscuring the political aspects of the subject.
Constitutional democracies are planning systems. They institute and
maintain a rational organization of resources for the realization of social
objectives. Its rationality may not be perfect, but it would be unrealistic to
insist upon such a criterion for planning or any other political function.
In reality, given the nature of the materials and problems involved, the
decision-making and administrative procedures of democracy represent the
most rational available means for effective planning.
Undoubtedly improvements in our constitutional structure remain
requisite, but there is no reason for pessimism here. Present demands on
government do not require radically different processes for their accomplish-
ments from those of the past. Such developments as are necessary we are
gradually working out, much as we have done in the past, while at the
same time we
clarify for ourselves just what it is that we want to accomplish
through them. Any other course would be only apparently more rational;
in time it would lead to a society...