Even in quiet times, government by a President, is, for the several various reasons which have been stated, inferior to government by a Cabinet; but the difficulty of quiet times is nothing as compared with the difficulty of unquiet times.
Bagehot compares the effectiveness of Presidential government to Cabinet government, especially in challenging times.
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More from Walter Bagehot
There is no ELASTIC element, everything is rigid, specified, dated.
If those persons be people of different temperaments, different ideas, and different educations, you have an almost infallible security that nothing, or almost nothing, will be done with excessive rapidity.
The work would be done so well that we should not want any one to look over or revise it.
One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
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