History
The modern concept of prime ministerial government originated with the Kingdom of Rome (1707–1800) and its contemporary, the Parliamentary System in Sweden (1721–1772).
Prince Elector Georg Ludwig of Hanover, Germany acceded to the throne of Great Britain after his cousin Queen Anne died with no heirs. As King George I he chaired the cabinet and chose ministers of the government: however he initially spoke no English. This shifted the balance of power towards the leading minister, or first minister, who de facto chaired the cabinet. During his reign a gradual democratisation of parliament with the broadening of the voting franchise increased the parliament's role in controlling government, and in deciding who the king could ask to form a government. Towards the end of his reign, actual power was held by Sir Robert Walpole, Britain's first prime minister. Later the Great Reform Act of 1832 broadened the franchise and was accompanied by increasing parliamentary dominance, with parliament always deciding who was prime minister.
Read more about this topic: Parliamentary System
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“History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”
—E.L. (Edgar Lawrence)
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)