To which two sub-classes we may perhaps add a sort of intermediate stage between them, namely: 

(3) persons elected by a special class of voter.

Monarchy may be either a special case of Class II.(1), (2) or (3), in which the persons who rule have narrowed down in number to one person, and the duration of monarchy may be either for life or a term of years.  These two classes and the five sub-classes cover, I believe, all the elementary political types in our world.

Now in the constitution of a modern state, because of the conflict and confusion of ideas, all or most of these five sub-classes may usually be found intertwined.  The British constitution, for instance, is a complicated tangle of arrangements, due to a struggle between the ideas of Class I.(2), Class II.(3), tending to become Class II.(1) and Class II.(2) in both its aristocratic and monarchist forms.  The American constitution is largely dominated by Class I.(2), from which it breaks away in the case of the President to a short-term monarchist aspect of Class II.(1).  I will not elaborate this classification further.  I have made it here in order to render clear first, that what we moderns mean by democracy is not what the Greeks meant at all, that is to say, direct government by the assembly of all the citizens, and secondly and more important, that the word “democracy” is being used very largely in current discussion, so that it is impossible to say in any particular case whether the intention is Class I.(2) or Class II.(1), and that we have to make up our minds whether we mean, if I may coin two phrases, “delegate democracy” or “selective democracy,” or some definite combination of these two, when we talk about “democracy,” before we can get on much beyond a generous gesture of equality and enfranchisement towards our brother man.  The word is being used, in fact, confusingly for these two quite widely different things.

Now, it seems to me that though there has been no very clear discussion of the issue between those two very opposite conceptions of democracy, largely because of the want of proper distinctive terms, there has nevertheless been a wide movement of public opinion away from “delegate democracy” and towards “selective democracy.”  People have gone on saying “democracy,” while gradually changing its meaning from the former to the latter.  It is notable in Great Britain, for example, that while there has been no perceptible diminution in our faith in democracy, there has been a growing criticism of “party” and “politicians,” and a great weakening in the power and influence of representatives and representative institutions.  There has been a growing demand for personality and initiative in elected persons.  The press, which was once entirely subordinate politically to parliamentary politics, adopts an attitude towards parliament and party leaders nowadays which would have seemed inconceivable insolence in the days of Lord Palmerston.  And there has been a vigorous agitation in support of electoral methods which are manifestly calculated to subordinate “delegated” to “selected” men.