ABSTRACT

It seems as if mankind is doomed (or privileged, the optimist will say) eternally to struggle with its most central problem: how to develop and shape a system to regulate the administration of the affairs of a country, its people and its natural resources which is based not merely on power, expedience, partisan or material interests, but on a legitimate moral basis. The history of these endeavours, the story of the failures and successes, and of the intellectual, practical and even emotional challenges and responses over the centuries are as fascinating as they are important to mankind and its future. No chapter of this history is illustrative of the weaknesses and strengths of our cultural and evolution than that of the sovereignty of parliament.