British government

The literature on the British political system is extensive and includes many
excellent works. My purpose in venturing to add to the long shelf of books
on this subject has been to provide American readers, principally college
and university students, with a description of the present-day structure and
practice of British government. While in form and spirit this government
is essentially that of the prewar period, the years of conflict and reconstruc-
tion have left their marks, and a good many developments of constitu-
tional importance have occurred since 1939. It has seemed, therefore, that
a book written in the light of recent developments-postwar elections, the
expansion of governmental functions under the welfare state concept, new
Commonwealth relations, to mention a few-might fill a need.
The author of a book describing the political system of a country always
faces problems of organization. There are usually two or three ways of
entering upon the subject and at least as many ways of carrying it forward.
The British government presents some special difficulties in this respect.
Being the product of a long evolution, it lacks a convenient constitutional
birthday from which one can start. Furthermore, its principal governmental
institutions do not fall as clearly under either functional or territorial head-
ings as such institutions do in some political systems, for example, the
American system with its constitutionally ordained executive, legislative,
and judicial organs and its federal, state, and local divisions.
Under the plan I have adopted, the book treats first of the country being
studied, its constitution, and the constitutional rights of its citizens. There
follows a series of chapters on the structure and functioning of the prin-
cipal institutions of British government. Succeeding chapters deal with
policy and administration in several fields of national importance. The last
two chapters discuss the Commonwealth of Nations and the colonial
empire.