ABSTRACT
The task of co-ordinating the many different processes of government may be done by a single man—a prince, president, or dictator, or by a committee. The body performing it will be in any case the chief directive agency of the State. Administrative decision is of such importance that the man taking it must for that reason have high political significance. A dictator, in any event, has to listen to the case put forward by a variety of ministers before he can make a major decision. The Cabinet simplifies this process by bringing them together. It has the advantage of several heads over one that more considerations may be allowed for, but it may also have the disadvantage of less decisiveness. Understanding of the nature of Cabinet government was curiously slow to develop. The slowness with which the necessary conditions of an effective system of Cabinet government were realised in England has characterised political development elsewhere.
