If there are three parties, no two of which will steadily combine for mutual action, but of which the weakest gives a rapidly oscillating preference to the two others, the primary condition of a Cabinet polity is not satisfied.
Bagehot describes the conditions necessary for a stable cabinet government in a multi-party system.
Share
More from Walter Bagehot
Savages waste away before modern civilisation; they seem to have held their ground before the ancient.
The Parliament, the laws, the press were human institutions; but the Monarchy was a Divine institution.
They have given what I may call a CONFIDENCE IN THE UNIVERSE.
The whole history of civilisation, is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.
Other voices in this conversation
