ABSTRACT
WE often call our country a democracy, and contrast the democracy of our system with the anti-democratic totalitarian regime of the Nazis. But in what sense is Great Britain, or for that matter the United States either, a democracy? Hitler and Mussolini call them both 'plutodemocracies'-that is, countries dominated by rich men making use of democratic forms. Socialists and Radicals of many sorts have often said the same thing, though they may not like it when they hear it said by a person such as Hitler, who wants not more democracy but none at all. Hitler denounces democracy as a clear sign of decadence, and proclaims the Fuhrer principle-the principle of leadership-in its stead. Socialists and Radicals, on the other hand, when they have denied that Great Britain is a democracy, have aimed at making it one. They believe in democracy, in a sense in which Great Britain is a very long way from having achieved it yet. They would nevertheless affirm that there are in Great Britain very important elements of democracy which do not exist in Nazi Germany or in Fascist Italy.
