Here we come up against a problem which is really the root problem of politics in general, and that is that the greater the number of individuals involved, the more difficult it becomes to define a policy acceptable to all, because the desires of individuals are not uniform and standardised. What we rather vaguely understand as democracy is an attempt at a solution of this difficulty. I think that the only conception of democracy which makes sense is that it is the choice of objectives which meet the desires of as large a majority of the members of an association as possible, without penalizing minorities. If we accept this as a definition, we can see that it has nothing to do with the methods by which choices are made. Different methods are appropriate to various objectives, and to make one method cover all contingencies will defeat any true democracy. The essential notion to grasp is the relationship of democracy to policy.
Party politics capitalize disagreements about objectives, and enable interested outsiders to despoil both sides.The present fantastic rates of taxation are sanctioned by the envy of the less well-off. The B.M.A. (The British Medical Association) would not last two years if its affairs were conducted on party-political lines. And I doubt if free society will last another two years if the same methods are continued.
The problem of politics is easier to solve when we realise that there are only two major policies in the world, the policy of freedom of the individual, and the policy of subordination of the individual to the group, the policy of servitude. Particular problems resolve themselves into special cases of those opposed policies, usually in the sense that the premises of a particular problem are, either openly, or more often implicitly, drawn from the objective of freedom or of servitude.
Dr. BRYAN MONAHAN New Times 13-11-59.