Basic Democracies
110. As for the proposal that the Basic Democracies should be the electoral college, besides our conclusion that the election should be direct, we feel the following difficulty. The principle, on which the average adult is excluded, under this scheme, from electing, directly, the President and the legislatures, is that he is incapable of discriminating amongst the various candidates, who live outside his neighborhood, which according to the scheme has been circumscribed both in territorial limits as well as the number of inhabitants. The reason given for this view is that an average adult is capable of making a selection only from amongst those in whose neighborhood he lives because he can reasonably be presumed to know them personally, or have the means of acquainting himself with regard to their fitness to represent him. There are. However, no restrictions, by way of any educational or other qualifications imposed on the candidates standing for election for Basic Democracies. Therefore, any adult in these small constituencies, who can command the confidence of the majority to the inhabitants of that constituency, will be elected. In these circumstances, we are unable to sec how a person, who may not be better qualified than the average adult in the area concerned, merely because he commands the confident of the Majority of the people of that area can become capable of judging as between the various candidates who stand for Presidency and Vice-Presidency and for membership of the legislatures. A person, though illiterate, may. as regards the local needs, be effective, but. for the election of the President and the member of the Parliament, he may be as incapable as his electors. As already stated. the justification for an indirect election is that it eliminates the ignorance of a universal suffrage by restricting the ultimate choice to a body of select persons. This assumes that the electoral college, which is elected on universal franchise, should be of such a caliber that the ignorance of the average adult is successfully climinated, but this standard cannot be said to be attained by an average Basic Democrat It is not ble to impose any high educational qualifications on the candidates for Basic Democracies, because, under the scheme, the constituency must necessarily be a very restricted one and, therefore, may be several constituencies where we may not get persons, with the minimum educational qualification, to stand for election, if persons from other constituencies are allowed to stand, the main principle of the scheme, vi:. that the average adult elector can elect only from amongst those with whom he moves and can reasonably be expected to be acquainted, is violated. Then again, an average adult person who is incapable of selecting the President, the Vice-President and the members of the parliament, will, in the nature of things, be mainly concerned with selecting a representative for looking after his local needs. The fact that the representatives so elected have to elect also the President, and the members of the parliament, would normally not be his main consideration The mere fact, (hat the electorate of the Basic Democrats was told that their representatives might also elect the President and the parliament, would not normally create any interest in an average elector, for. he himself is not to nuke that selection and. secondly, he is. both in fact and on the presumption in the scheme, interested primarily only in his local affairs. However, as we have stated above, the prune consideration with us is the necessity for a direct election, having regard to the role which the President plays in the country. As he is the government, and the people would naturally look up to him for redress of
