What habit is to the individual, usage is to the State; nations, like men, get into the habit of doing things in a given way. Habit then hardens into usage, which becomes difficult to change.
The political customs and usages, which have their basis neither in laws nor in judicial decisions, are essential parts of the basic framework of the fundamental rules of the government in every country. They modernise, amend and democratise the otherwise rigid constitutions.
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But there are two considerations in this respect. The first is that customs play an important part in the case of old rather than of new constitutions. Secondly, customs develop and thrive in countries where the inhabitants cherish respect for the past and a higher regard for precedents. In India, there is no set of established conventions.
The reasons are obvious. The Indian Constitution had ever been in the melting pot, and her late masters (British) always gave a small dose of reforms whenever the patriotic movement gained momentum.
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The present Constitution though new yet it is prolific in amendments. It has been amended seventy-four times during a span of forty three years and many more are waiting in a row.
Thus no opportunity has been given to customs to grow and get permanently established. In France, too, development of the constitution through usage and custom has been very small, because France has been the laboratory of constitutional experiments.
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Between 1789 and 1875, she adopted and then rejected nearly a dozen constitutions and all those constitutions were the result of revolutions rather than of evolutions.
But the Constitution of the United States of America has considerably developed and expanded through customs and usages. Does the Constitution authorize the President to have a ‘Cabinet’ and to consult its members as a collective body? The written Constitution is silent.
President Washington found it useful to have a small group of advisers to whom he could look for counsel and other Presidents have continued with it, and, today, it is impossible to dispense entirely with such a body.
The Constitution also provides for indirect election of the President. But the electoral system did not function as the framers of the Constitution had contemplated. The electors have now been reduced to mere dummies and the Presidential election has become direct.
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There are many more examples of customs and usages, like senatorial courtesy, legislative committees, and residential requirements in the case of the Representatives, which have supplemented the Constitution and without them it would be unworkable. The most revealing of these is the rise and organisation of political parties.
The party system that grew and matured in the eighteenth century was antithetical to the ideals of the men who had drafted the Constitution. The system of government they set up did not anticipate the emergence of parties, but today it is impossible to work the institutions of the country without parties.
