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The English Constitution

Walter Bagehot

Book Overview: 

The English Constitution is an extremely accessible work of political and legal science by Walter Bagehot, first published in serialized form in 1865-7. While some of his observations on the English system no longer apply to the modern constitutional organization of the United Kingdom, his philosophical basis is for the most part as sound as ever.

For instance, Bagehot observes in the chapter on the Monarchy that, It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations. The nature of a constitution, the action of an assembly, the play of parties, the unseen formation of a guiding opinion, are complex facts, difficult to know and easy to mistake. But the action of a single will, the fiat of a single mind, are easy ideas: anybody can make them out, and no one can ever forget them. When you put before the mass of mankind the question, "Will you be governed by a king, or will you be governed by a constitution?" the inquiry comes out thus—"Will you be governed in a way you understand, or will you be governed in a way you do not understand?" The issue was put to the French people; they were asked, "Will you be governed by Louis Napoleon, or will you be governed by an assembly?" The French people said, "We will be governed by the one man we can imagine, and not by the many people we cannot imagine".

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .The most intellectual of men are moved quite as much by the circumstances which they are used to as by their own will. The active voluntary part of a man is very small, and if it were not economised by a sleepy kind of habit, its results would be null. We could not do every day out of our own heads all we have to do. We should accomplish nothing, for all our energies would be frittered away in minor attempts at petty improvement. One man, too, would go off from the known track in one direction, and one in another; so that when a crisis came requiring massed combination, no two men would be near enough to act together. It is the dull traditional habit of mankind that guides most men's actions, and is the steady frame in which each new artist must set the picture that he paints. And all this traditional part of human nature is, ex vi termini, most easily impressed and acted on by that which is handed down. Other things being equal, yesterday's institutions are by far the be. . . Read More

Community Reviews

Long winded

Lots of words, little is said. A fascinating insight into the mind of a 19th century man on a mission to convince you that Parliament has changed enough.

AmblesideOnline year 9 book - this book is hard...and honestly I’m not sure it’s worth the time and work. I trust the AO advisory but we also have to consider how we’re using our and our children’s time. My daughter was getting absolutely nothing out of this on her own so I started reading it aloud,

For those of us who heard of this book in the Netflix series the Crown, where Parliament is the efficient and the crown is the dignified, this was a worthwhile reading. It lays out how the British system of government works and explains their system of Parliamentary sovereignty. What that means is t

Worth reading if you enjoy politics and/or history, simply for the experience of reading such a landmark text. Bagehot could also certainly coin a snappy phrase, and the book is peppered with them.

Of course, the actual legal commentary is a century and a half old. That’s not to say there’s nothing o

This is not really a review, it's basically just a collection of notes for my records. I didn't finish the main body of the book, which is an analysis of the English constitution in the 1860s. Instead, more than anything - I read and gained insight from Richard Crossman's forward/analysis, and the 4

Though I have quite bigger expectations from the book to which people refer even after a century and a half of the very turbulent history that changed the very base of the subject. But I did not find the extravagant depth of thought or its breadth, the author almost religiously devoted to the cabine

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