Earnest constituencies would exact frequent elections; they would not like to part with their virtue for a long period; it would anger them to see it used contrary to their wishes, amid circumstances which at the election no one thought of.
Bagehot argues that engaged constituencies would demand frequent elections to ensure their representatives align with their values.
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More from Walter Bagehot
But the Jewish advantage never did so; beginning in religion, contrary to a thousand analogies, it remained religious.
There is no ELASTIC element, everything is rigid, specified, dated.
The whole history of civilisation, is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.
He gave an excellent moral example to his contemporaries, but he is an instance of those whose good dies with them, while their evil lives after them.
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