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approve, they are driven by one leader, and then by the next. Manin must be correct that
Schumpeter entirely lacks an understanding of counterfactual anticipation in human
affairs, the phenomena so richly illustrated by noncooperative game theory (Schelling
1960). A potential leader normally is inclined to run, and refines her platform, in
orientation to the views of the electorate, and in office is disciplined by the threat of
removal by the electorate. Good leaders do shape some views, but not out of nothing:
they are constrained to offer a more coherent reconciliation of the disparate beliefs and
desires of the electorate than a competitor’s reconciliation (Mackie 2003, 301).
ELECTIONS AS NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT CONDITION
Schumpeter repeatedly offers untenable propositions about means and ends. He
proposes an objection to his account of the uncontrolled leader: parliament obviously
does a lot of other things than elect a leader, it legislates, it administers. Schumpeter
replies to the objection with an analogy. Each of two contending armies pursues a
strategic or tactical purpose, to defeat the enemy. In carrying out this purpose, the army
battles for a stretch of country or a hill. The desirability of controlling that ground must
be derived from the purpose of defeating the enemy, not from any extra-military
properties of the ground. Similarly, the purpose of each party is to prevail over others, to
keep power or gain it:
Like the conquest of the stretch of country or the hill, the decision of the political
issues is, from the standpoint of the politician, not the end but only the material of
parliamentary activity. . . . victory over the opponent is the . . . the essence of both
games. (279).
Schumpeter seems to hold that winning election is the necessary and sufficient
condition of democratic politics. It is necessary, I hold, but not sufficient. His army
analogy is misaligned. Defeat of the enemy is a necessary but intermediate purpose for
the army. After all, there must be reasons to defeat the enemy. Those reasons are usually
Convention