84 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The traditional fear of absolutism need not deter us from making the mayor the real executive head of the city government. Correctly interpreted, this plan offers possibilities of popular con- trol which our present system lacks. At all events, it is well for us to understand that the demand for efficiency, which the Ameri- can people place above their desire for democratic rule, will inevit- ably lead to this concentration of executive power. The real alternative that presents itself is, therefore, whether this concen- tration of power will be accompanied by the destruction of the city council, or whether the city council will survive as an organ of

government restricted to purely legislative functions.