SUBORDINATION OF THE WORKER TO THE MACHINE THE MACHINE PROCESS AND THE INSTINCTS PART I HISTORICAL AND INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM OF DEMOCRACY § 1. THE MEANING OF DEMOCRACY THE fundamental problem of human life is the social problem or the problem of living together in a social order with the least friction and the richest possible conservation and development of human powers. Democracy is but the last and, we are more and more convinced, the best solution of the social problem. Democracy, therefore, whatever it may mean, is not ultimate; it is a means to an end. It is merely one of the many solutions that have been proposed for the fundamental problem of civilization. Democracy is true, then, not because it reflects the eternal order of things but because of its practical results. Of governments as well as of religious beliefs it may be said "By their fruits ye shall know them ". Democracy being an attempt to solve a comprehensive problem will of course present many phases. Looked at from the point of view of the state, democracy may be defined as ' the vesting of the people with the sovereign power. The supreme advantage of popular rule is that through it freedom and responsibility, rights and duties, are most intimately related. The exercise of sovereignty emphasizes the obligations that accompany it. Men are made to feel that rights and duties are but different ways of viewing the same social situation. The relation of rights and duties suggests, however, that political democracy can never exhaust the meaning of |