ABSTRACT
Of course, all power is limited in practice, and power by remote control is subject to what engineers call transmission losses. Not only did the landowners have a veto on matters affecting their own interest, which on occasions of headon collision required the threat of revolution to remove. The working class, too, made demands which could not be ignored altogether, and, especially when allied with capable ‘social cranks’ from the politically entrenched classes, had to be met by concessions and compromise. Finally, the professional middle class had a profound influence both on the demands made by the other classes and the language in which they expressed them and on the way in which the laws were framed and administered. Between these three influences power could often be attenuated, or diverted into directions not anticipated by the class wielding it. To this extent the victory of the entrepreneurial class was a highly qualified one.
