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Tendencies Affecting the Size of the Ballot1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2018

Charles A. Beard
Charles A. Beard*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Extract

In seeking to discover whether we are going in the direction of the short ballot, I am not hunting for the “failures” of American democracy, but for those evidences which show that democracy is forging the instruments with which to achieve still greater things. I am attempting to find out whether we are still hopelessly involved in political tinkering and electoral futilities or are coming into a recognition of the really effective way of meeting the tremendous burden of administrative responsibilities which the epoch of social democracy has brought upon us. The age of laissez faire is dead; here and now, we are in the midst of a steady increase in governmental functions whether we like it or not. On every side, there is a pressure for a multiplication of public enterprizes, which cannot be stayed or turned aside by phrases or exclamations.

Type
Papers
Information
Proceedings of the American Political Science Association , Volume 6: Sixth Annual Meeting , December 1910 , pp. 93 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1910

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Footnotes

1

This paper is based largely upon an article published by the author in the Political Science Quarterly for December, 1909.

References

2 North American Review, vol. cxiii, p. 327.

3 Civic Problems. Address delivered March 9, 1909, at St. Louis.

4 Review of Reviews, vol. xxxii, pp. 76 ff.

5 Since this paper was read, Governor Hughes has come out definitely for the short ballot. In his message of January 5, 1910, he said: “There is just and widespread demand for improvement in election methods. As I stated in my last annual message, progress in solving the problems of state government would seem to involve the concentration of responsibility with regard to executive powers To accomplish this there should be a reduction in the number of elective offices. The ends of democracy will be better attained to the extent that the attention of the voters may be focused upon comparatively few offices, the incumbents of which can be held strictly accountable for administration. This will tend to promote efficiency in public office by increasing the effectiveness of the voter and by diminishing the opportunities of political manipulators who take advantage of the multiplicity of elective offices to perfect their schemes at the public expense. I am in favor of as few elective offices as may be consistent with proper accountability to the people, and a short ballot…

It would be an improvement, I believe, in state administration if the executive responsibility were centered in the governor who should appoint a cabinet of administrative heads accountable to him and charged with the duties now imposed upon elected state officers.” Proposals to increase the terms of assemblymen to two years and senators to four years and to make appointive some of the chief state officers now elective are pending the New York legislature.

6 Digest of Governor's Messages, 1903, N. Y. State Library Bulletin, p.29.

7 Our State Constitutions p. 33.

8 The Political Science Quarterly for December, 1909, p. 597.