Intellectual Freedom and Political Co-operation

Abstract

Representative democracy, as we know it, is an outgrowth of modern political liberalism which proposes to find a basis for government in the intellect and will of individual citizens. It assumes that the thinking of every man goes on in a social medium, and that it involves a continuous interchange of information and opinion which can be relied upon to produce a sufficient measure of agreement among fellow-citizens on questions of national policy and the goals of national effort. Accordingly, we say that in a democracy the governing force is public opinion which results from the collective thinking of fellow-citizens. In the heated discussions of the political campaign, such opinion crystallizes, and is given recorded expression in the vote. Its formation and expression proceed at all times, however, facilitated by the newspaper and periodical press, by public speeches and debates, and by the talk which goes on without ceasing among friends and acquaintances, in families and various local groups. It is therefore consistent with the democratic conception of government to understand the political freedom for which the United Nations have fought, as a freedom primarily intellectual, the right of the individual citizen to liberty of thought and investigation, of utterance and published statement, of party preference and secret ballot.