ABSTRACT
There are many traits of the future for which the authorities stand surety, whether by implicit underwriting or by explicit promise. Every guaranteed trait of the future affords a support for intellectual speculation, but also constitutes a constraint upon the group's prospects. But it may also happen that pressure develops against a guaranteed trait of the future which the rulers believe plays a key role in the whole structure of information they provide, in which case the pressure may result in a conflict whose first consequences is to topple the whole set of assurances. There is only one important uncertainty in the British political order, and that is a systematic uncertainty to do with general elections. But consider how small that uncertainty is. In a regular system, men deliberately enclose themselves in a universe with restricted possibilities. And this entails a greatly improved foreseeability. Before the British system there was another model of a regular system —the French monarchy.
