Type 7: "Constitutionalist"

The Constitutionalist is incorruptible. That is because unlike the other six governing mindset types, he operates within a tradition, and does not try to exalt himself above it. He declares his allegiance to custom, convention and continuity, and pays deference to our institutions. He recognises the need for restraints upon power and passion, and therefore supports the balanced Constitution and the rule of law. He understands that energetic governments are by their nature oppressive, and that any increase in the power of government comes at the expense of liberty. That we long ago descended into the polite totalitarianism of the 'Servile State', tells us that the strict Constitutionalist is no more.

Mindset: Read The Radical Tory Manifesto. "Government which governs least governs best. Because the state has a monopoly on power and violence, the law and constitution must limit the amount of coercive fear a government can hold over its constituents. People should not be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people. When government fears the people we have civil democracy, when people fear the government we have statist tyranny. Good government demands no more than the defence of the Crown, Church, Constitution and Realm."

Resulting Government: Constitutional Monarchy/Republic

Manifestations: Westminsterism, traditionalism, patriotism, monarchism, loyalism, fushionism, (paleo)conservatism, classical federalism...

Intellectual: Polybius (The Histories), Montesquieu (The Spirit of the Laws), John Locke (Two Treatises on Government), Edmund Burke (Reflections on the French Revolution), Thomas Jefferson/James Madison/John Adams (U.S. Constitution), Walter Bagehot (The English Constitution), Samuel Griffith (Australian Constitution)...Eugene Forsey (The Royal Power of Dissolution of Parliament and How Canadians Govern Themselves)

Practitioners: Proud inheritors of the Magna Carta and 800 years of English/British common law; the Founding Fathers of the American, Canadian and Australian federations; constitutionalists in the Westminster responsible government tradition include Burke and Pitt, Mackenzie and Papineau, Disraeli and Gladstone, MacDonald and Cartier, Parkes and Deakin, Lord Salisbury...right up to the time of the Salisbury Group. Politicians who still maintain a traditional Westminster disposition in the spirit of a Salisbury or a Churchill are none to be found.

Contemporary: Her Majesty the Queen is the most obvious constitutionalist, since she actually believes in her Coronation Oath. Other than that, I really don't know of any remaining type 7. It is far more likely to come across the presidential premiership of a Tony Blair these days. The lone practitioner in the American tradition would appear to be presidential candidate Ron Paul who garnered no more than 5% of the Republican vote.

Summary: "We are flawed creatures, but we are not totally depraved. In our better moments we recognise our weakness and we create institutions in order to defend us from our worst failings. Institutions are above politics. You might say that we have institutions so that we don’t die of politics. But as we look around at our institutions today we see that like Sidonius’ Rome, they have all been undermined from the inside: the law, education, the established church, the monarchy. Our neglect, or worse our destruction, of our institutions reveals our self-contempt." - recent article in The Salisbury Review

Now that our little exercise has been completed, I'm obligated to reveal my source for this wonderful idea, and admit my outright theft of some choice passages from that rebellious traitor William Lyon Mackenzie whom nobody liked, but whom we can nevertheless thank for pushing the way towards responsible government in British North America during the late 1830s. It is furthermore interesting to point out that WLM was quite possibly the very first Anglospherist in advocating federal union between Britain, Canada, the United States, and Ireland in 1861 (see Wikipedia).