Gradual Growth
The system has attained full maturity after centuries of growth. Its delicate and sensitive nature is, therefore, not likely to suffer any set-back by inept handling at the hands of the electorate or the leaders.
The role of information media
There is a vigilant and vocal press which informs and educates all sections of the people. Newspaper reading is a national habit in Britain. The channels of dissemination of news and views arc numerous and widespread. The executive has to be very careful lest it incur public indignation.
Two-party system
The two-party system which is largely an accident of history, forms a part of settled political habit in that country. The parliamentary mechanism would lose much of its' efficiency and vitality if it were to work with more than two parties, as has been witnessed in France. The Constitution of the Third French Republic (1870-1940), drafted in 1870, closely followed the British model, but the existence of a large number of groups in the French Parliament precluded all chances of single-party ministries like those of Britain. The composite cabinets based on heterogeneous majorities crumbled one after another. The parliamentary history of France under the 3rd and the 4th Republic is a panorama of phantom ministries. That is why parliamentary government means different things to the French and the British.
Public opinion
British leadership is very sensitive to public opinion. Clear indications of this sensitivity have been provided many a time in British history. Mr. Mc. Donald with a comfortable majority in the parliament had to yield of the Unemployment Assistance Regulations in 1934. Mr. Baldwin again with a majority had to sacrifice Sir Samuel Hoare in the Abyssinian Crisis of 1935. In 1940 the futile attempt to defend Norway against German invasion and the dangers posed by the German military's infiltration into Western Europe led to the fall of a majority Government by sheer force of public opinion. As recently as 1956 Sir Anthony Eden had to resign after his Suez venture though there was no formal vote of censure, the firm and forceful expression of adverse opinions compelled the Prime Minister to go.
The British temper
The remarkable ability of the British people to adapt and compromise provides a common ground on which politics can operate without social upheavals. As Lord Balfour has said. “Democracy presupposes a people so fundamentally at one that they can safely afford to bicker and so of their own moderation that they are not dangerously disturbed by the never ending din of political conflict. The most remarkable instance of this adaptability in the British people is the Welfare Legislation of the Labor Government in 1945-50. The programme implied a virtual revolution in property relationships and political
