Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/113

future, I am dealing with what is. The parties constituting an assembly of debate which is not an assembly of authority must be subject to a very different set of influences from that which plays upon our British political parties. A Chamber responsible to public opinion for its acts and free constitutionally to make its will effective, must keep in touch with every phase of the public mind and must make itself responsible for every step in national evolution. The parties in such a Chamber have to pay far more attention to method and immediate programmes than to abstract principles, though they must find principles necessary as the mould in which to fashion programmes, and as the lamps by which to guide their steps. They will be far less able to take purely negative attitudes, and they will have far fewer opportunities to vote on separate measures without reference to the complete work of sessions and to the governments that are in power. The consequences of their action upon the general political situation, the relation which every question bears to the larger programmes and to the advantage or disadvantage of other parties must be ever in their minds. In other words, whilst the eyes of the parties in an irresponsible legislature like the Reichstag are fixed upon the horizon, those of the parties in a responsible legislature like our own House of Commons are fixed at their feet. To-day and to-morrow are of relatively small consequence under the former conditions; they are of the greatest importance under the latter conditions.