Walter Bagehot: “Caprice is the characteristic vice of miscellaneous assemblies, and…”

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Caprice is the characteristic vice of miscellaneous assemblies, and without some check their selection would be unceasingly mutable.

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Walter Bagehot

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Bagehot identifies unpredictability as a major flaw of diverse legislative bodies without checks.

More from Walter Bagehot

Thirdly, we see why so few nations have made rapid advance, and how many have become stationary.

Nothing promotes intellect like intellectual discussion, and nothing promotes intellectual discussion so much as government by discussion.

The Parliament, the laws, the press were human institutions; but the Monarchy was a Divine institution.

Perhaps such powers as these are what a wise man would most seek to exercise and least fear to possess.

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Walter Bagehot: “Caprice is the characteristic vice of miscellaneous assemblies, and without some check their selection would be…”