CENTRALIZATION AND DECENTRALIZATION
of the central executive. This increase of power of the
central executive tends to make war more likely. Hence
there will be demands for yet more intensive centraliza-
tion. And so on, ad infinitum—or, rather, until the
crash comes.
So long as civilized countries continue to prepare for
war, it is enormously improbable that* any of them will
pursue a policy of decentralization and the extension of
the principle of self-government. On the contrary, power
will tend to become more narrowly concentrated than at
present, not only in the totalitarian states, but also in the
democratic countries, which will therefore tead to become
less and less democratic. Indeed, the movement away from
democratic forms of government and towards centralization
of authority and military tyranny is already under way in
the democratic countries. In England such symptoms as
the Sedition Bill, the enrolment of an army of 'air raid
wardens/ the secret but systematic drilling of government
servants in the technique of 'air raid precautions/ are
unmistakable. In France the executive has already taken
to itself the power to conscribe everybody and everything
in the event of war breaking out. In Belgium, Holland
and the Scandinavian countries, as well as in the more
powerful democracies, huge sums are being spent on re-
armament. But rearmament is not a mere accumulation
of ironmongery. There must be men trained to use the
new weapons, a supply of docile labour for their manu-
facture. An increase in the amount of a country's
armaments implies a corresponding increase in the degree
of its militarization. The fire-eaters of the Left who,
for the last two years, have been calling for a 'firm stand'
(i.e. military action) on the part of the democratic countries
against Fascist aggression have in effect been calling for
an acceleration of the process by which the democratic
countries are gradually, but systematically, being trans-
c 65