ABSTRACT
The analysts of power in a system such as the find in practice a great cohesion which goes far beyond party frontiers. The situation is much less clear in a changing system, such as that of France since 1958-62, which, having broken with its former habits of thought and action, has just passed the crucial stage where the founders of the new system have been replaced by men who may continue, transform or abandon it. In Great Britain the power-confidence circle is single and unbroken – from the people to the Prime Minister through the largest parliamentary group in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister being the elected leader of this group. The actual mechanism of the preparation and making of decisions at Executive level, after the inevitable hesitations at the start, explains the philosophy and the distribution of power.
