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Contemporary British Political Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

George Catlin
George Catlin
Affiliation:
University of California (Berkeley)
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Extract

The ideas of the bloodless and “glorious Revolution” of 1688, and especially those of John Locke, inspired the Founding Fathers of the United States and, both directly and indirectly, influenced the French Revolution. In the nineteenth century a successful Britain also made her great contribution to European civilization, and this not least in terms of her political ideas and of her parliamentary institutions. Politically it would be quite accurate to say that she led the world.

In this present generation, however, England is in a poorer way as a fount of political ideas than she has been for centuries. The great succession of Occam and Fortescue, More and Hooker, Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Bentham, the Mills, Green, even Spencer, perhaps Bradley, seems to be broken. Many British writers are too content to subedit Hegel or Marx and to explain what they really meant. The most eminent now living, Lord Russell, is primarily a mathematical philosopher.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , September 1952 , pp. 641 - 659
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1952

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References

1 Upon the limits of the present tendency to cabinet rule, Professor Laski has commented with admirable skill in Reflections on the Constitution (1951). It is precisely in these cases that one may suspect a revolt of the electorate. Incidentally, similarly effective warnings to Ministers have until recently been given in the privacy of the Carlton Club, the demi-king and little sovereign of the Conservative Party.

2 Reflections on the Constitution (Manchester, 1951), pp. 48–50Google Scholar.

3 The Anglo-Saxon Tradition (London and New York, 1939)Google Scholar.

4 “The Scientific versus the Moralistic Approach in International Affairs,” International Affairs, Vol. 27, pp. 411–422 (Oct., 1951)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 “Qu'est ce qu'une Nation?” Discours et conférences (Paris, 1887), p. 306Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., p. 28.

7 American Diplomacy, 1900–1950 (Chicago, 1951)Google Scholar.