Professor of Modern History in the University of Manchester, 1913 to
1921.
Mr. Ramsay Muir said:--One of the most marked, and one of the most
ominous, features of the political situation to-day is that there is an
almost universal decline of belief in and respect for our system of
government. This undermining of the confidence that a healthy community
ought to feel in its institutions is a perturbing fact which it is the
plain duty of all good Liberals to consider seriously. We need not be
deterred by the old gibe that Liberalism has always cared more about
political machinery than about social reorganisation. The gibe was never
true. But, in any case, no projects of social reorganisation have much
chance of success unless the political machinery by means of which they
have to be carried into effect is working efficiently. Moreover, since
most of the projects of social reform which are being urged upon our
attention involve an enlargement of the activities of the State, it is
obvious that we shall be running the risk of a breakdown unless we make
sure that the machinery of the State is capable of meeting the demands
which are made upon it. We must be satisfied that our engine has
sufficient power before we require it to draw a double load. In truth,
one reason why the engine of government is not working well is that it
has been required to do a great deal more work than it was designed for.
The time has come to consider carefully the character and capacity of
our machinery of government in view of the increased demands which are
certain to be made upon it in the future.
Our national political system may be divided into two parts. On the one
hand, there is the working machine, which goes on, year in, year out,
whether Parliament is sitting or not, and which would still go on quite
well for a time if Parliament never met again. We call it the
Government, and we habitually and rightly hold it responsible for every
aspect of national policy and action, for legislation and finance as
well as for foreign policy and internal administration. On the other
hand, there is what Burke used to call "the control on behalf of the
nation," mainly exercised through Parliament, whose chief function is to
criticise and control the action of Government, and to make the
responsibility of Government to the nation a real and a felt
responsibility. The discontents of to-day apply to both parts of the
system, and I propose to deal with them in turn, first inquiring what is
wrong with the working machine of government and how it can be amended,
and then turning to consider how far the control on behalf of the nation
is working badly, and how it can be made more efficient.
In what I have called the "working machine" of government there are two
distinct elements. First, there is the large, permanent, professional
staff, the Civil Service; secondly, there is the policy-directing body,
the Cabinet. Both of these are the objects of a great deal of
contemporary criticism. On the one hand, we are told that we are
suffering from "bureaucracy," which means that the permanent officials
have too much independent and uncontrolled, or imperfectly controlled,
authority. On the other hand, we are told that we are suffering from
Cabinet dictatorship, or, alternatively, that the Cabinet system is
breaking down and being replaced by the autocracy of the Prime Minister.
There is a good deal of _prima facie_ justification for all these
complaints.