On 08/03/07, Guy Chapman aka JzG <guy.chapman(a)spamcop.net> wrote:
Authority here derives from the monarch, but is vested
in others, and
any attempt to exercise power against the will of the people would
cause problems.
Historically, *really* pushing it gets your head cut off, which means
sensible monarchs get very good at reading the public mood in both the
short and long terms.
It took us a couple of hundred years to get the
balance right, and it's still changing. But over that entire period,
the country remained governable and tolerably well-regulated. Is that
so bad?
To paraphrase a fellow Englishman, Jimbocracy is the very worst system
of government, apart from all the others.
Indeed. We're doing things that have NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE; if we
didn't do some *really stupid* things in the process, it'd be a clear
case of not being nearly adventurous enough.
- d.