Institutions carry a ceremonial part that commands loyalty and a working part that exercises power, and confusing them misreads both.
Bagehot's 1867 analysis of the British constitution: the monarchy commands loyalty, the cabinet exercises power, and the arrangement works because the public attends to the first. Confusing them misjudges both.
In practice
- A regulator's public hearings command deference and its enforcement team exercises the power, and confusing the two misjudges both.
- A company's founder holds the ceremonial role and the chief operating officer holds the levers, and outsiders lobby the wrong one.
- Subject
- Law & Politics
- Essay
- Competing accounts of how power works