gative power of the king remained unlimited. The veto power acquired
by the upper classes might prevent him from enacting a particular law,
or enforcing a given policy, but no one had a veto on his inaction. He
might be unable to do what the classes having a voice in the management
of the government forbade, but he could decline to do what they wished.

The appearance of a House of Commons did not change essentially the
character of the scheme, nor would it have done so, had this body been
truly representative of the people as a whole. It placed an additional
check on both King and Lords by giving to the representative body the
power to negative their positive acts. Both the King and the Lords
retained, however, their negative authority unimpaired and could use it
for the purpose of defeating any measure which the Commons desired. This
is what we may call the check and balance stage of political
development. Here all positive authority is limited, since its exercise
may be prevented by the negative power lodged for this purpose in the
other branches of the government. This negative power itself, however,
is absolute and unlimited. The government is in no true sense
responsible to the people, or any part of them, since they have no
positive control over it.

This complex system of restrictions which is the outgrowth and
expression of a class struggle for the control of the government must
necessarily disappear when the supremacy of the people is finally
established. This brings us to the next and for our present purpose, at
least, the last stage of political evolution.

Here the authority of the people is undisputed. Their will is law. The
entire system of checks has been swept away. No irresponsible and
insignificant minority is longer clothed with power to prevent reform.
The authority of the government is limited only by its direct and
complete responsibility to the people.

Corresponding to these three stages of political evolution we have three
general types of government:

1. Unlimited and irresponsible.

2. Positively limited, negatively unlimited and irresponsible.

3. Unlimited and responsible.

As shown in a previous chapter, the Revolutionary movement largely
destroyed the system of checks. It abolished the veto power, centralized
authority and made the government in a measure responsible to the
electorate. The Constitution, however, restored the old order in a
modified form. In this sense it was reac