return to top page PAPWORTH'S LAWS OF POLITICAL DYNAMICS
Whichever party group wins an election it is seldom the people, for their role in casting a vote in elections today is largely symbolic and akin to being asked to kick off at a football match. In whatever direction they kick, or whichever side they may favour, it has no bearing on the subsequent progress of the game or its result. Quite other forces are at work.LAW 1
As a political unit increases in numbers, the capacity of the individual citizen to control its workings declines.LAW 2
A community may be defined as a political unit of such modest dimensions that the personal relationships of the members, and how those relationships become expressed in terms of morals and values, can take precedence over every other force.LAW 3
A large political unit which lacks the organic, non-centralised structure of localised community life is called a mass society and as such cannot long endure. Whilst it holds sway it will be chronically subject to wars, economic upheavals and other attributes of political decadence.LAW 4
A mass democracy is a contradiction in terms.LAW 5
Whatever power exists there inevitably arises a conflict between those who exercise it and those who don't, and the diminution of the power of individual members of a mass society to control its workings is always accompanied by an increase in the power of the forces at the centre.LAW 6
In a mass society power is always pursued as an end in itself.LAW 7
If politically ambitious people in a mass society fail to pursue power as an end in itself they will be replaced by others who do.LAW 8
In a mass society, public policy is determined by private leadership groups, seldom by public opinion.LAW 9
In a mass society mass movements of reform acquire the same characteristics of centralised control and personal alienation of the members as the mass society itself.LAW 10
Giantism, centralisation and excessive speed now represent a doomsday triumvirate that has become public enemy number one of the human race.copies of this document may be obtained from 26 The High Street, Purton, Wiltshire SN5 4AE, UK
Tel: 01793 77 22 14 Fax: 01793 77 25 21
e-mail: john.papworth@btinternet.com
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