Democratic Obligations of Management and Labor in Total War

Abstract

At the risk of being considered an easy purveyor of economic-political platitudes, I propose to outline briefly at this point some of the main conceptual ideals which seem to underlie our economic and political system. Our system of government is based on the consent of those who are governed. Through a scheme of representation the will of a majority of the state's citizens is enforced on all the citizens, and the interests of minorities are protected by specific safeguards. The individual citizen is held in high esteem, and he is integrated into the social structure through a co-related system of rights and responsibilities. These rights and responsibilities are set forth in accordance with the principle of the greatest good for the greatest number of citizens. The rights are conferred on citizens by the state (which is the organized expression of the majority's will), and the responsibilities or duties are required and enforced by the state. The state or government itself has its own rights and responsibilities. It is entitled at all times to the loyalty of all citizens. It has the right to enforce the rules which have been devised for the playing of the economic-political game. Among its responsibilities are (1) the obligation to abide by and make effective the will of the majority of its citizens, (2) the duty to protect the interests of minorities, (3) the duty to establish and enforce the rules of economic and political conduct, (4) the duty to change these rules as environmental conditions change, and (5) the obligation to provide adequate outlets, through the rules, for citizens' basic needs, such as their desires for power, for freedom, and for security. The last-named responsibility needs a little elaboration. I mean that a democratic government is obligated to establish equality of opportunity and a positive freedom for its citizens to pursue occupational advancement and enhancement of income of various kinds. And it is also obligated to provide a base of protection and security-a sort of negative freedom-from oppression, exploitation, or coercion by other citizens or groups of citizens as these citizens exercise their positive freedom to enlarge their incomes. The rights and responsibilities of citizens in our democracy are in a sense the obverse of the state's. They are entitled to the positive and negative freedoms just mentioned above: equality of opportunity to pursue economic welfare and gain, and freedom from coercion or exploitation by other citizens. They are obligated to abide by the will of the majority and to obey the rules of the game which the majority's government has established. They are obligated, further, to respect the rights of minori-