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THE GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE
The MacMillan Company
New York - Boston - Chicago
Dallas - San Francisco
MacMillan & Co., Limited
London - Bombay - Calcutta
Melbourne
The MacMillan Co. of Canada, Ltd.
Toronto
THE GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE
by
FREDERIC AUSTIN OGG, Ph. D.
Professor of Political Science
in the University of Wisconsin
Author of
"Social Progress in Contemporary Europe"
New York
The MacMillan Company
1918
All rights reserved
Copyright, 1913.
by the MacMillan Company
Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1913.
Reprinted July, December, 1913; June, 1914; August, 1915;
July, 1916; September, 1917.
TO MY FATHER
PREFACE (p. vii)
It is a matter of common observation that during the opening years of
the twentieth century there has been, in many portions of the
civilized world, a substantial quickening of interest in the
principles and problems of human government. The United States is
happily among those countries in which the phenomenon can be observed,
and we have witnessed in recent times not only the organization of
societies and the establishment of journals designed to foster
research within the field, but also a notable multiplication and
strengthening of courses in political science open to students in our
colleges and universities, as well as the development of clubs,
forums, extension courses, and other facilities for the increasing of
political information and the stimulation of political thinking on the
part of the people at large. It is the object of this book to promote
the intelligent study of government by supplying working descriptions
of the governmental systems of the various countries of western and
central Europe as they have taken form and as they operate at the
present day. Conceived and prepared primarily as a text for use in
college courses, it is hoped none the less that the volume may prove
of service to persons everywhere whose interest in the subject leads
them to seek the sort of information which is here presented.
The content of the book has been determined, in the main, by three
considerations. In the first place, it has been deemed desirable to
afford a wide opportunity for the _comparative_ study of political
institutions, especially by reason of the familiar fact that the
governmental system of a minor country may, and frequently does,
exhibit elements of novelty and of importance not inferior to those to
be observed in the political organization of a greater state. Hence
there are included descriptions of the governments of the minor as
well as of the major nations of western and central Europe; and the
original purpose to attempt some treatment of the governments of the
eastern nations has been abandoned, somewhat reluctantly, only because
of the demands of space, and because it was felt that this portion of
the projected work would perhaps meet no very serious need in the
usual college courses. In the second place, it is believed that the
intelligent study of present-day governments must involve at all (p. viii)
stages the taking into careful account of the historical origins and
growth of these governments. Hence a considerable amount of space has
been devoted to sketches of constitutional history, which, however,
are in all instances so arranged that they may readily be omitted if
their omission is deemed desirable. In the case of countries whose
political system underwent a general reconstitution during the
Revolutionary and Napoleonic era it has been thought not feasible to
allude, even briefly, to historical developments prior to the later
eighteenth century. In the third place, it has been considered
desirable to include in the book some treatment of political parties
and of the institutions of local administration.
Within a field so expansive it has been possible to undertake but an
introduction to a majority of the subjects touched upon. In the
foot-notes will be found references to books, documents, and
periodical materials of widely varying types, and it is hoped that
some of these may serve to guide student and reader to more intensive
information.
The preparation of the book has been facilitated by the encouragement
and the expert advice accorded me by a number of teachers of
government in colleges and universities in various portions of the
country. And I have had at all times the patient and discriminating
assistance of my wife. For neither the plan nor the details of the
work, however, can responsibility be attached to anyone save myself. I
can only hope that amidst the multitude of facts, some elusive and
many subject to constant change, which I have attempted here to set
down, not many seriously vitiating errors may have escaped detection.
Frederic Austin OGG.
Cambridge, Massachusetts,
January 10, 1913.
TABLE OF CONTENTS (p. ix)
PART I.--GREAT BRITAIN
I. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION
1. The Importance of Historical Background 1
2. Anglo-Saxon Beginnings 2
3. The Norman-Plantagenet Period 6
4. The Rise of Parliament 11
5. Administrative and Judicial Development 16
6. The Tudor Monarchy 18
7. Parliament under the Tudors 21
8. The Stuarts: Crown and Parliament 26
9. The Later Stuarts: the Revolution of 1688-1689 31
II. THE CONSTITUTION SINCE THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
1. Crown and Parliament after 1789 34
2. Rise of the Cabinet and of Political Parties 37
3. The Scottish and Irish Unions 39
4. The Nature and Sources of the Constitution 41
5. The Flexibility of the Constitution 44
III. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY
1. The Crown: Legal Status and Privileges 48
2. The Powers of the Crown 52
3. The Importance and Strength of the Monarchy 58
4. Privy Council, Ministry, and Cabinet 60
5. The Executive Departments 61
6. The Cabinet: Composition and Character 64
7. The Cabinet in Action 70
IV. PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
1. The House of Commons prior to 1832 77
2. Parliamentary Reform, 1832-1885 80
3. The Franchise and the Electoral Questions of To-day 86
4. Electoral Procedure and Regulations 92
V. PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF LORDS (p. x)
1. Composition 97
2. The Reform of the Lords: the Question prior to 1909 101
3. The Question of the Lords, 1909-1911 106
4. The Parliament Act of 1911 and After 112
VI. PARLIAMENT, ORGANIZATION, FUNCTIONS, PROCEDURE
1. The Assembling of the Chambers 117
2. Organization of the House of Commons 120
3. Organization of the House of Lords 125
4. Privileges of the Houses and of Members 126
5. The Functions of Parliament 128
6. General Aspects of Parliamentary Procedure 132
7. The Conduct of Business in the two Houses 138
VII. POLITICAL PARTIES
1. Parliamentarism and the Party System 143
2. Parties in the Later Eighteenth and Earlier Nineteenth
Centuries 145
3. The Second Era of Whig [Liberal] Ascendancy, 1830-1874 147
4. The Second Era of Conservative Ascendancy, 1874-1905 150
5. The Liberal Revival 155
6. The Rule of the Liberals, 1906-1912 158
7. The Parties of To-day 162
VIII. JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
1. English Law 167
2. The Inferior Courts 170
3. The Higher Courts 173
4. Local Government to the Municipal Corporations Act,
1835 176
5. Local Government Reform, 1835-1912 179
6. Local and Central Government 181
7. Local Government To-day: Rural 183
8. Local Government To-day: Urban 186