Why would the author of this quotation say the commission plan has "perfect simplicity"?

The strongest feature of the commission plan of city government is its perfect simplicity, its directness and in limiting the number of those directly charged with the management of the city's affairs.

All the power to make decisions rests with one person: the mayor.

There are a limited number of people responsible, and each has a specific area of responsibility.

The system is too simple to meet the needs of a modern city.

Based on the information provided, it seems that the author sees the commission plan as a "perfect simplicity" because there are very few people involved with making decisions. For example, it says that the mayor has the power to make all decisions. When one person is put in charge and has the ability to make laws as they see fit, it makes for a highly efficient government. With this type of government, there is no need to get approval from other individuals. To understand how this compares to the current American system, consider the following.

In order for a federal law to be passed in the United States, there needs to be approval by the Senate, House of Representatives, and the President. The Senate contains 100 people while the House of Representatives contains 435. As you can see, with this many people sharing their voices/opinions on a matter, it makes it difficult to make laws.

This is most likely why the author goes on to say that "this system is too simple to meet the needs of a modern society." A system where one person has absolute power to make decisions can be very ineffective, as they may not consider the needs of their citizens.

Perhaps the reason why the author stated that the commission plan has "perfect simplicity" is because this seems like an archaic way of running anything regarding modern government. Having only one, or a few, making all of the decisions for the majority is extremely backwards. Corruption could very easily run rampant in situations like these. While the Mayor & others in office are elected officials, no one is infallible, nor are they immune to the evils that are surrounding the current state of affairs. With the abundance of money, technology, & "smarter" ways of running every day business, it could be very easy for 1 person to overlook blatant transgressions, especially behind closed doors. It's time for a more open government, & ways that anyone could do the checks & balances.