So long as the more simple and primitive conditions of society which obtained in the first half of the nineteenth century were all but universal in the United States, any criticism of the plan of state and municipal government which prevailed was a purely academic exercise. Even when, in some districts, conditions had changed and great cities had arisen with enormous wealth and population, to which the mid-nineteenth-century plan of government did not seem to fit in practice, the majority were still so far satisfied as to make any criticism of that plan of merely speculative value. But in the second decade of the twentieth century the provincial and frontier type of society will be found to embrace a distinct minority of the population of the country. The social conditions presented by a large population in a small area, with a highly organized and differentiated social structure, have become common to a large portion of the population of the entire country. Whether the application of a mid-nineteenth-century plan of government to these conditions is satisfactory is, therefore, no longer an academic or speculative question. Its due consideration has perhaps rather become to the last degree vital to the life of the nation. To those who are face to face with this problem the following essay is addressed. PART I THE RISE OF THE POLITOCRATS CHAPTER I UNPOPULAR GOVERNMENT--DEFINED--HOW FORMERLY MAINTAINED--PRECAUTIONS TAKEN TO AVOID IT Unpopular government is, and indeed always has been, a government of the few, by the few, and for the few, at the expense and against the wish of the many. In a former era unpopular government was achieved and maintained with simple directness. All governmental power was, by a monarchical or oligarchical plan, openly placed in the hands of the few. Human characteristics insured the selfish use of that power. The maintenance of such selfish use of governmental power against the wish of the majority was accomplished by denying any legal opportunity to the majority to express itself, and by the perpetuation of power in the hands of the few by inheritance or appointment.