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Burke on Political Economy: The Nature and Extent of State Authority

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

James Conniff
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Extract

The interpretation of Edmund Burke as a laissez-faire economist has a long pedigree but is inaccurate. Rather, Burke is best seen as a moderate Whig who believed that governmental social and economic policy should be based on pragmatic and prudential considerations. However, utilitarian rule-making makes most sense when the rules can be formulated in terms of realizing some more abstract goal. This goal Burke obtained from his reading of the Scotch moral sense writers, who convinced him that man has an innate moral nature which can be improved through association with other men in society. Consideration of Burke's writings on a variety of specific economic and social issues, ranging from poor relief and economic reform to the slave trade, confirms this instrumental interpretation of Burke's economic thought.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , Fall 1987 , pp. 490 - 514
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1987

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References

Notes

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49 Ibid., p. 137.

50 Ibid., p. 157.

51 Ibid., p. 142.

52 Ibid., p. 135.

53 Ibid., p. 146.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid., p. 154.1

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81 Ibid., p. 334.

82 Ibid., p. 335.

83 Ibid., p. 291.

84 Ibid., p. 298.

85 Ibid., p. 310.

86 Ibid., p. 311.

87 Ibid., p. 351.

88 Ibid., p. 310–11. Macpherson's comment is at Burke, pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

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96 Ibid., p. 131.

97 Burke, Edmund, “Sketch of a Negro Code,” Works, 6:262–89.Google Scholar

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99 Ibid., p. 263 ff.

100 Ibid., p. 265 ff.

101 Ibid., p. 273 ff.

102 Ibid., p. 275 ff.

103 Burke, , CorrespondenceGoogle Scholar, to Dundas, Henry, 9/04/1792, 7:122.Google Scholar

104 Ibid., p. 123.

105 Ibid., p. 124.

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108 Ibid.

109 Burke's evaluation of the Navigation Acts may be found at “Speech on American Taxation,” Works, 6:31 ff.Google Scholar A more critical view is in “Observations on a Late Publication Entitled “The Present State of the Nation,” Works, 1:269–432; 394 ff.Google Scholar

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111 Burke, Edmund, “Fragments of a Tract Relative to the Laws Against Popery in Ireland,” Works, 6:299–360.Google Scholar

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