GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE 219

treason, is a common feature of dictatorships. In this connection
France is an interesting example: the administrative system still
bears the stamp of the Napoleonic dictatorship, and its officials
have large and insufficiently supervised powers of patronage.
The corruption which this breeds is exposed in periodic
scandals because the main structure of the Government is
democratic.

For the party in power in a democracy to give jobs to its own
supporters, in return for their loyalty, is corruption. In dictator-
ships it is an invariable and inevitable practice; for no position
of importance can be entrusted to one whose faith in the ruling
party is not absolute. Impartiality in the Civil Service is not
enough f a judge who tries accused persons according to the
evidence rather than to the wishes of the Government, will not
serve. The ruling party is assumed to be the State itself and the
first qualification for any branch of public service is not com-
petence and honesty, but the profession of a particular set of
political opinions. The process is known in Germany as
Gleichschaltung, unifying the State: so this form of corruption is
not removed by a dictatorship but re-christened.

By no means all democracies are as free from corruption as
Britain; her Unusually high standard is due to two facts: first,
that the financial system is the product of a struggle for Parlia-
mentary Government; second, that the I9th century enfranchise-
ment of the middle classes strengthened the demand for econ-
omical administration. Where the evolution of Government has
been different the results have not always been so satisfactory.
But the general conclusion remains; while all Governments are
liable to corruption, democracies possess weapons for fighting
it which are denied to dictatorships. Corruption is wide-
spread in U.S.A. politics; but the democratic weapons have, in
some districts, been successfully used against it. In Germany,
the absence of opposition enables some officials of the Nazi
Party to use their position to enrich themselves.

The fourth merit of a democracy can be more easily observed