82 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

uncertain. A Committee which reported on the subject in 1932
realised that if the authority of Courts over the decisions of
Government Departments was to be restored, the procedure
of the law would have to be simplified.

This account of the power of the Civil Service leads to one
general conclusion. The bureaucracy becomes powerful in
proportion to the incompetence of other parts of Government.
When there are ignorant Ministers, careless Parliaments, and
over-burdened law courts, the Civil Service does what it can
to carry on the Government in spite of these drawbacks. There
is no real evidence which justifies the picture of Civil Servants
as despots, hungering for power. They are, rather, pickers up of
unconsidered trifles, and they pick them up because of a
professional love of tidiness. If not only trifles, but the Rule of
Law and the rights of citizens are left unconsidered, the fault
does not lie with the Civil Service.

GOVERNMENT BY EXPERTS.

Since bureaucracy is not a selfish tyranny, some are tempted
to see in it the perfect form of Government—Government by
experts. There are two serious objections to this view. First,
that such Government is deceitful. By the imposing show of
Cabinet Ministers and an elected Parliament it leads the people
to think that they govern themselves, when in fact they do not.
A people accustomed to being deceived gets no real understanding
of politics and is the natural prey of quacks. This evil lies hidden
as long as no great crises arise. But if, for example, a rapid
growth of unemployment and poverty alarms the people, they
will realise that thek votes do not make much difference, and
will hand over thek lit>erty to whichever popular speaker has
studied the art of deception most diligently. The second objection
arises from the recurrent need, in human society, for change.
The Civil Servant is trained to understand and work the law
as it is; the changes he suggests, while useful, are not funda-
mental. If a man is .to say what political changes are necessary