The great prize which is reserved for the lord paramount and his tenants in chief is the privilege of entering into an alliance, offensive and defensive, with special business and property interests which need the aid of the local or state governmental power to exploit to the best advantage the many, or the protection from governmental interference at the demand of the many who are being exploited. Indeed, so close may the relations become between the great captains of such special business and property interests and the extra-legal government by politocrats, that the real power of government may to some extent actually reside in the former rather than the latter. It will indeed be difficult in many instances to tell which group commands and which obeys. Where the leaders of both are equally able there will be a complete partnership. Section 7 The Extra-legal Government Is Able to Maintain Itself in the Face of Popular Disapproval The conditions under which extra-legal government exercises its power and the manner of that exercise furnish it with certain considerable advantages in its very natural effort to maintain itself in the face of popular disapproval. The extra-legal government has the advantage of being hidden from the electorate. The mass of voters can tell who only a few conspicuous officeholders in the legal government at any one time are. Of the existence of a thoroughly organized extra-legal government they have no real knowledge whatever. If they have some idea of machines and bosses it is vague and imperfect. They see only a little at a time and have no idea who it is that casts their ballots for them. The voter who masters such secrets is rare indeed. Even the very intelligent man who is a voter cannot tell anything in his own district about the extra-legal government. He only knows that there are bosses whom he never seems to have a chance to vote against. This secrecy on the part of the extra-legal government is an invaluable asset in enabling it to retain power. So long as extra-legal government remains hidden, there is little chance of the voter causing it any serious damage. The extra-legal government has a great advantage also in the fact that while it is the real government, the electorate is constantly voting for the legal but dummy government of officeholders. Of course, if the voter knew the connection between each officeholder and the extra-legal government he might vote intelligently, but that is information of the most secret kind. In many instances it is impossible for anyone to obtain it. Certainly it cannot be expected that a voter who is in ignorance of the qualifications and personality of most of the candidates for office will ever know what connection any of them have with a more or less secret extra-legal government.