The New Review February 1940

It follows therfore that a right understanding of Democracy implies an examination both of the spirit or principles which inspire the democratic machinery and of the framework or machinery of the regime itself such as the effectiveness of the vote and the working of the party system. [...] The interests of the party are placed before the good of the country and in the last analysis the aim of politics becomes not the common good but the defeat of all opposing parties. [...] The politics of the party system leads to the serious question of the relation between the legislature and the executive in the machinery of the Liberal DemocraticLIBERAL DEMOCRACY RE-EXAMINED 113 State. [...] The modern development of the party system tends to stress this difficulty since the aim of party politics is really the ousting of the Government and the gaining of power and not the common good of the nation. [...] - The oddest example of this is the repeated claim of the pre-war Chamberlain Government that the deplorable state of Britain's defences in the autumn of 1938 was the fault of the Opposition.