The English Constitution · Chapter
VII: The Prerequisites of Cabinet Government, and the Peculiar Form Which They Have Assumed in England explained
This chapter examines the rare conditions necessary for cabinet government, including mutual confidence among electors, a calm national mind, and a deferential society.
What happens
This chapter examines the rare conditions necessary for cabinet government, including mutual confidence among electors, a calm national mind, and a deferential society. It argues that England exemplifies a 'deferential nation' where the majority willingly delegates power to an educated elite, and where the monarchy's theatrical visibility stabilizes the system by masking the true locus of power in the cabinet and parliament.
Themes in this chapter
Prerequisites for Elective Government
Bagehot identifies three essential conditions: mutual confidence among electors, a calm national mind, and rationality (the ability to conceive of distant objects). These are necessary for any elective system to function without collapse.
Social Class and Deference
The chapter introduces the concept of 'deferential nations,' where the numerical majority willingly abdicates its power to a select educated minority. England is presented as the prime example, with the middle classes as the despotic power and the aristocracy providing a 'theatrical show' that commands obedience.
Monarchy and Public Sentiment
The monarchy's visible pomp and the Queen's role as an unchosen ruler are highlighted as crucial for masking the reality of cabinet government, thereby preventing the masses from being overwhelmed by the excitement of choosing their rulers.
Characters to notice
- Queen Victoria
Mentioned as the hereditary monarch whose visible dignity helps the poorer and ignorant classes believe they are governed by a queen, thereby preventing political excitement and collapse.
Key passages
“The first prerequisite of elective government is the mutual confidence of the electors.”
For an elective government to work, voters must trust each other enough to cooperate across regions and classes.
Bagehot argues that such trust is rare in semi-barbarous societies, where suspicion of neighboring parishes or counties makes coordinated choice of rulers impossible.
“A second and very rare condition of an elective government is a calm national mind—a tone of mind sufficiently stable to bear the necessary excitement of conspicuous revolutions.”
The populace must be emotionally stable enough to handle the periodic upheavals of elections without descending into chaos or usurpation.
Bagehot warns that uneducated masses would 'go wild' if directly told to choose rulers, and that august institutions like the monarchy prevent this collapse by providing a visible, unchosen figurehead.
“England is the type of deferential countries, and the manner in which it is so, and has become so, is extremely curious.”
England exemplifies a nation where the majority willingly defers to a select elite, and the historical development of this trait is remarkable.
Bagehot explains that the English people defer not so much to their rulers as to the 'theatrical show' of society—the pomp of courts and aristocracies that overawes the imagination.