The Governments of Europe

The Governments of Europe, by
Frederic Austin

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Governments of Europe, by
Frederic Austin Ogg
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Governments of Europe
Author: Frederic Austin Ogg

Release Date: April 7, 2007 [eBook #21006]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE***
E-text prepared by Dave Kline, Christine P. Travers, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)

Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed between paired asterisks is in bold face. Original page
numbers are shown at the right margin to facilitate use of the index.

THE GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE
The MacMillan Company New York - Boston - Chicago Dallas - San
Francisco
MacMillan & Co., Limited London - Bombay - Calcutta Melbourne
The MacMillan Co. of Canada, Ltd. Toronto

THE GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE
by
FREDERIC AUSTIN OGG, Ph. D.
Professor of Political Science in the University of Wisconsin Author of
"Social Progress in Contemporary Europe"

New York The MacMillan Company 1918 All rights reserved
Copyright, 1913. by the MacMillan Company Set up and electrotyped.
Published February, 1913. Reprinted July, December, 1913; June, 1914;
August, 1915; July, 1916; September, 1917.

TO MY FATHER

PREFACE (p. vii)

It is a matter of common observation that during the opening years of
the twentieth century there has been, in many portions of the civilized
world, a substantial quickening of interest in the principles and
problems of human government. The United States is happily among
those countries in which the phenomenon can be observed, and we
have witnessed in recent times not only the organization of societies
and the establishment of journals designed to foster research within the
field, but also a notable multiplication and strengthening of courses in
political science open to students in our colleges and universities, as
well as the development of clubs, forums, extension courses, and other
facilities for the increasing of political information and the stimulation
of political thinking on the part of the people at large. It is the object of
this book to promote the intelligent study of government by supplying
working descriptions of the governmental systems of the various
countries of western and central Europe as they have taken form and as
they operate at the present day. Conceived and prepared primarily as a
text for use in college courses, it is hoped none the less that the volume
may prove of service to persons everywhere whose interest in the
subject leads them to seek the sort of information which is here
presented.
The content of the book has been determined, in the main, by three
considerations. In the first place, it has been deemed desirable to afford
a wide opportunity for the comparative study of political institutions,
especially by reason of the familiar fact that the governmental system
of a minor country may, and frequently does, exhibit elements of
novelty and of importance not inferior to those to be observed in the
political organization of a greater state. Hence there are included
descriptions of the governments of the minor as well as of the major
nations of western and central Europe; and the original purpose to
attempt some treatment of the governments of the eastern nations has
been abandoned, somewhat reluctantly, only because of the demands of
space, and because it was felt that this portion of the projected work
would perhaps meet no very serious need in the usual college courses.
In the second place, it is believed that the intelligent study of
present-day governments must involve at all (p. viii) stages the taking
into careful account of the historical origins and growth of these

governments. Hence a considerable amount of space has been devoted
to sketches of constitutional history, which, however, are in all
instances so arranged that they may readily be omitted if their omission
is deemed desirable. In the case of countries whose political system
underwent a general reconstitution during the Revolutionary and
Napoleonic era it has been thought not feasible to allude, even briefly,
to historical developments prior to the later eighteenth century. In the
third place, it has been considered desirable to include in the book
some treatment of political parties and of the institutions of local
administration.
Within a field so expansive it has been possible to undertake but an
introduction to a majority of the subjects touched upon. In the
foot-notes will be found references to books, documents, and periodical
materials of widely varying types, and it is hoped that some of these
may serve to guide student and reader