Microcosmographia Academica

Microcosmographia Academica is a short pamphlet on university politics written by F. M. Cornford and published in 1908; it has acquired something of a small cult following. A somewhat pessimistic view of participation in academic politics is presented in an accessible and lively style, though the text is remembered better for its dissection of particular arguments such as the thin end of The Wedge and the Dangerous Precedent:

The Principle of the Dangerous Precedent is that you should not now do an admittedly right action for fear you, or your equally timid successors, should not have the courage to do right in some future case, which, ex hypothesi, is essentially different, but superficially resembles the present one. Every public action which is not customary, either is wrong, or, if it is right, is a dangerous precedent. It follows that nothing should ever be done for the first time.

Albeit written for an audience familiar with the internal legislative procedures of the University of Cambridge at the turn of the twentieth century, Microcosmographia Academica could easily describe elements of any political system, and runs in a very similar vein to the humour of the television programme Yes, Minister. Gordon Johnson incorporated Microcosmographia Academica in his short book about the politics of the University of Cambridge; the original text is preceded by a considerably larger body of explanatory material recounting the background against which Cornford was writing.