A Country's Constitution

Conclusion, Part 6 to blupete's Essay
"A Country's Constitution"

The principal purpose of a country's constitution is to curb abuses of any group, including government, through the misuse of power. Once set, as George Washington in his Farewell Address said: "The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and alter their constitutions of government. But the constitution which at any time exists, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all."
And the last words we give to Walter Bagehot:
"It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations. The nature of a constitution, the action of an assembly, the play of parties, the unseen formation of a guiding opinion, are complex facts, difficult to know, and easy to mistake."20

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2011 (2019)