Chapter X: Municipal Government

Municipal government at the time of the Revolution 249 Changes in municipal government after the adoption of the Constitution 250 The municipality a creature of the state legislature 252 Hostility of the courts to municipal self-government 254 The attitude of the courts made state interference necessary 255 Abuses of legislative interference 256 Constitutional provisions limiting the power of the legislature to interfere 261 Effort to establish municipal self-government 265 Limitation of the power of the majority in constitutions granting municipal self-government 266 The object of home rule provisions largely defeated by judicial interpretation 268 Limitation of the taxing and borrowing power of home rule cities 272 Origin of the constitutional limitations of municipal indebtedness 273 Fear of municipal democracy 277 Municipal ownership as a means of taxing the propertyless class 280 Why our state governments have not been favorable to municipal democracy 285 Limitation of the power of the majority the main cause of municipal corruption 288

CHAPTER XI

INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY AND THE CONSTITUTION

The eighteenth-century conception of liberty negative 291 Influence of the Revolution upon the conception of liberty 293 Why present-day conservatives advocate the eighteenth century view of liberty 295 Liberty to the framers meant the limitation of the power of the majority 297 The doctrine of vested rights 299 Survival of the old view of liberty in our legal literature 301

CHAPTER XII

INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY AND THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM

The economic conditions under which the old view of liberty originated 304 Influence of the industrial revolution upon the liberty of the worker 306 The _laissez faire_ policy 308 Protection has been maintained as a class policy 312 The need of protection to labor 316 Limitation of governmental powers in the interest of the capitalist 318 The policy of the Supreme Court a factor in corrupting the state governments 325

CHAPTER XIII

THE INFLUENCE OF DEMOCRACY UPON THE CONSTITUTION

Modification of the system as originally set up 331 The extension of the suffrage 333 Defect in the method of electing the President 333 Three reforms needed in the case of the Senate 338 Possibility of controlling the Supreme Court 341 Power of two-thirds of the states to call a constitutional convention 346 Effort to secure the responsibility of public officials 349 Direct versus representative democracy 351 Reliance of the conservative classes on the courts 355 Election of United States senators by the legislature incompatible with its other functions 357

CHAPTER XIV

EFFECT OF THE TRANSITION FROM MINORITY TO MAJORITY RULE UPON MORALITY

Higher standards of morality 361 The growth of publicity in relation to immorality 363 Decline in the efficacy of old restraints 364 The conflict between two opposing political systems 367 The need of more publicity 372 Corporate control of the organs of public opinion 375 Lack of respect for law 377

CHAPTER XV

DEMOCRACY OF THE FUTURE

The progress of democratic thought 379 Influence of printing upon the growth of democracy 380 The immediate aim of democracy political 383 Relation of scientific and industrial progress to democracy 384 Democracy would make government a science 386 Dependence of man's industrial activities on the social environment 388 Necessity for equality of opportunity ignored by conservative writers 390 The scientific justification of democracy's hostility to privilege 394 Democracy's attitude toward the doctrine of _laissez faire_ 397

THE SPIRIT OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT