On the record
The Prime Minister--the chief on whom everything depends, who must take responsibility if any one is to take it, who must use force if any one is to use it--is not fixed in power.
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Walter Bagehot
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gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “The Prime Minister--the chief on whom everything depends, who must take responsibility if any one is to take it, who…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot discusses the precarious nature of the Prime Minister's position, emphasizing the need for responsibility and authority.
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More from Walter Bagehot
But it is natural also that persons used to analyse political institutions should look at these anomalies with a little tenderness and a little interest.
At last it strikes you that they grew up, house by house, on the devious tracks of the old green lanes; and if you follow on to the existing fields, you may often find the change half complete.
It is natural that those who by special and admirable culture have come to look at all things upon the artistic side, should start back from these queer peculiarities.
The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.
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