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The Shrinking World of Bagehot

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Ghiţa Ionescu
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Extract

IN SPITE OF ALL THAT HAS HAPPENED, WITHIN BRITAIN AND WITHOUT, since Bagehot's death in 1877, the British political world still speaks, writes and teaches in Bagehot's terms, Some reassessments of his ideas did of course take place, the most searching of which probably arose as a result of the advent of socialism. Its impact on the politics of Britain, and of the world, needed to be considered. Nevertheless, though we might have grasped what changes had taken place, and though we might have seen how Bagehot's vision needed to be adjurtedg to these new realities, yet, on the whole it seemed that these changes did not affect the essential aspects of that vision. We were still bounded by the classic British parliamentary system for which Bagehot is the best interpreter.

Type
Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , 01 January 1975 , pp. 1 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1975

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References

1 The Collected Works of Walter Bagehot, ed. by St John Stevas, N.. The Political Essays, with an introduction by St John Stevas, N., Vols IV–VIII, The Economist, London, 1974.Google Scholar

2 N. St John Stevas, Walter Bagehot. A Study of his Life and Thought together with a Selection from his Political Writings, London, 1959.

3 D. Kavanagh, ‘The Deferential English: A Comparative Critique’, Government and Opposition, Vol. 6, No. 3, 1971, pp. 333ff.

4 When Crossman decided to write an Introduction to the English Constitution, John P. Mackintosh had also just published his The British Cabinet (1962), in which, for the first time, the increasing domination of the cabinet by the Prime Minister was brought out. Crossman, who had long wished to discuss the way in which Attlee conducted his cabinet, while acknowledging his debt to Mackintosh, chose to air the whole matter in his Introduction to Bagehot’s English Constitution, which thus turned on this question. St John Stevas, who now closes the cycle, which has returned full circle to him, does not omit to point out Crossman’s debt to Mackintosh. But one reader, at least, was surprised at how little attention his new essay pays to Crossman’s still very substantial Introduction to the English Constitution.

5 Op. cit., Vol. V., p. 155.

6 Op. cit., Vol. VIII, pp. 156–7.

7 D. Butler and D. Kavanagh, The British General Election of February 1974, London, 1974.