The growth of the democratic element in Japanese government has not been without effect on the Privy Council. In the early years of its history, the Council and the ministry were institutions serving the same classes and seeing eye to eye. This was true not only under the presidency of Ito, Oki, and Yamagata (1889-94), but also even during a considerable part of the period when party government was struggling for supremacy. In those days, political parties in the House of Representatives were balked by the bureaucrats, clansmen, and militarists entrenched in the administrative branch, while the seats in the Council were occupied by the great leaders of these controlling classes. But the doctrine of ministerial responsibility had begun to take root. In 1895, the Ito ministry abandoned the principle of executive independence of political parties and accepted an alliance with the Jiyuto, or Liberal party. In 1898, the Kenseito, or Constitutional party, under the leadership of Okuma and Itagaki, was given the opportunity of forming the first party cabinet in the history of Japan. Upon its fall, caused by internal dissension, the succeeding ministry under Yamagata (1898-1900) contained no party men, although the premier condescended to an alliance with the Kenseito. In 1900, Ito himself formed the Seiyukai, and brought the second party cabinet into office. But it was not until the first Kenseikai ministry, under Okuma and Kato (1914-16), and the fifth Seiyukai ministry under Hara (1918-21), that well-grounded ministerial parties controlled the lower house.

State courts determine, in the absence of constitutional provision to the contrary, whether amendments to state constitutions have been proposed and adopted in the manner provided for these constitutions. Not every minor deviation from the course of action marked out in the constitution for its amendment is deemed sufficient to justify the court in declaring that the amendment has been “unconstitutionally adopted,” but whether these deviations are serious enough to warrant such a declaration is a question to be determined by the courts themselves. Statutes supplementing constitutional provisions on the subject of amendment are valid if not in conflict with the constitutional provisions themselves, and substantial compliance with these rules is also required by the courts. Sometimes the provisions regulating the subject of publication of proposed amendments are constitutional; at other times they are statutory. In either case, publication in the manner provided for, and for the period of time provided for, is necessary to the validity of the amendment. Publication for two weeks, when the period should have been four weeks, was deemed sufficient by the Nebraska court to invalidate the amendment involved.

It is quite possible to accept absolutely the standpoint of Mr. Croly's paper, and yet to dissent from its principal conclusion. The standpoint is that of the evolutionist, who regards contemporary “progressive” policies not as finalities, but as transitional phenomena in the development of popular government. The conclusion is that these policies are nevertheless bound to acquire a certain relative finality, which will make them self-obstructive of their own purpose. And the answer is that the movement momentarily expressed in these policies is deeper than they are, and that its vitality can overcome their mechanical limitations.

Mr. Croly identifies the Progressive movement with the devices of direct popular government, which he says it proposes to substitute for representative government. He takes Oregon as the type and Senator Bourne's famous rhapsody as the gospel of the movement. He analyzes the natural evolution of direct government out of the failure of delegated government. The once omnipotent representative legislatures were limited first by those who distrusted the people, through constitutional checks and judicial aggressions, and then by the Jacksonian democracy, through executive and party aggrandizement. But the very constitutional limitation was itself operated by direct vote of the people. As representative legislation degenerated, this originally restraining device became by contrast the only moveable portion of the system, and was the ordinary resort when real law making was needed. Direct legislation under the guide of constitutional amendment transformed constitutions into codes of laws, and the more detailed they became, the more impossible it was to legislate by any other method.

It is an old axiom, replete with common sense, that there is no more uncertain field for prophecy than that of practical politics. This is especially true when any forecast must be made fourteen months ahead of time. All that the observer of contemporary American politics may do is to sum up, as far as possible, the existing state of affairs, and then make a series of guesses as to what may eventuate. This present article is written with these conditions in mind, and should be read in the same spirit.

The present political situation would appear to be as follows. Normally, there are at least five million more Republicans than Democrats in the country. This is in large part due to the secession from the Democratic party in 1896 of large numbers of young men, just entering upon adult life or experiencing their first taste of business and finance, who were hostile to the late William J. Bryan and his “free silver” theories. These young men later were added to in large number by the strong, dominant, and attractive personality of Theodore Roosevelt, who typified to them the American spirit. Also the great, underlying influence of economic expansion, the financial and business domination of much of our national life, and the frank acceptance of these conditions by the Republican leaders of the first decade of this century strengthened and accelerated this movement in favor of the “Grand Old Party.” The young men of that time, now grown to middle age and national leadership in many walks of life, are the backbone of the financial support of the party today. And they have brought up their children to the same political allegiance.