My great object was to contrast the office of President as an executive officer and to compare it with that of a Prime Minister; and I devoted much space to showing that in one principal respect the English system is by far the best.
Bagehot aims to highlight the advantages of the English Prime Minister's role compared to that of the American President.
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More from Walter Bagehot
Savages waste away before modern civilisation; they seem to have held their ground before the ancient.
That a House of Commons may work well it must perform, as we saw, five functions well: it must elect a Ministry well, legislate well, teach the nation well, express the nation's will well, bring matters to the nation's attention well.
Now it is not conceivable that a race of beings with valuable instincts supporting their existence and supplying their wants would need these simple tools.
It is absurd to choose by contested party election an impartial chooser of Ministers.
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