J.S. Mill and the Problem of Party

1981 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce L. Kinzer
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Life ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Party Government ◽  
Victorian Period ◽  
Responsible Government ◽  
Henry Sidgwick ◽  
Political Thinker ◽  
Normal Feature

Although party was a considerably more limited force in the British political system between the repeal of the Corn Laws and the Second Reform Act than it had been either during the thirties and early forties or in the later decades of the nineteenth century, it was nonetheless a significant fact of English political life throughout the Victorian period. Few students of nineteenth-century British politics, however, would look to J.S. Mill, perhaps the most influential political thinker of his time, for insights into the role of party. The consensus has been that very little of a positive nature can be said about Mill and party. InThe Elements of Politics, Henry Sidgwick observes that “Mill… hardly seems to contemplate a dual organisation of parties as a normal feature of representative institutions.” A.H. Birch asserts, in hisRepresentative and Responsible Government, that Mill “simply ignored the existence of political parties.” Dennis Thompson's study of the structure of Mill's political thought devotes some three pages to Mill's attitude towards party government, the author concluding that he was hostile to it and did not consider it necessary “for effective, stable democracy.” Indeed, Mill's major political treatise,Considerations on Representative Government, says remarkably little about parties, and where they are referred to no constructive influence is imputed to them. His discussion of Thomas Hare's plan of personal or proportional representation, for example, makes clear that one of its numerous virtues is the security it provides for insuring the representation not of “two great parties alone” but of every significant “minority in the whole nation.”

scholarly journals Commercial Foot Soldiers of the Empire: Foreign Merchant Politics in Tampico, Mexico, 1861-1866

1990 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-314
Author(s):  
John D. French
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Port Cities ◽  
Detailed Case ◽  
Central Arena ◽  
Foreign Merchants

During the period from Mexican independence in 1821 to the end of the French intervention in 1867, Mexico's primary tie to the outside world was based on trade. The foreign merchants, who monopolized this activity, played a crucial role in the economic, diplomatic, and political life of Mexico. The current literature on these nineteenth century merchants includes studies of foreign groups, such as the French, detailed case studies of individual entrepreneurs, firms and merchant families, and one work that provides a unique state-centered perspective on the Mexican/merchant nexus. None, however, have tried to conceptualize the role of foreign merchants as a whole, across national lines and individual rivalries, in the port cities that were the central arena of contact and conflict with the outside world.

The Courtown Land Agents and Transnational Estate Management, 1850–1900

2018 ◽  
pp. 93-108
Author(s):  
Rachel Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Financial Situation ◽  
Management Structure ◽  
Victorian Period ◽  
Estate Management

The nature of estate agencies across the four nations during the nineteenth century varied depending on the size and location of the estate, and the financial situation of the landlord. In short, just as estates were not homogenous, neither were the agencies that managed them. This chapter considers the management structure of a transnational estate during the second half of the nineteenth century, using the Courtown estate as a case study. It examines the roles of the agents, sub-agents and bailiffs employed on the estate during this period. It is hoped that the study will enable comparison with other estates within the four nations, leading to a deeper understanding of the role of the land agent during the Victorian period.

‘The Sword of Avenging Justice’: Politics in Sutherland after the Third Reform Act

Rural History ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNIE TINDLEY
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Political Life ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Scottish Highlands ◽  
The Third ◽  
General Decline ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThere has been much historical debate over the role of aristocratic landed families in local and national politics throughout the nineteenth century, and the impact of the First, Second and Third Reform Acts on that role. Additionally, the period from 1881 in the Scottish Highlands was one of acute political and ideological crisis, as the debate over the reform of the Land Laws took a violent turn, and Highland landowners were forced to address the demands of their small tenants. This article addresses these debates, taking as its case-study the ducal house of Sutherland. The Leveson-Gower family owned almost the whole county of Sutherland and until 1884 dominated political life in the region. This article examines the gradual breakdown of that political power, in line with a more general decline in financial and territorial influence, both in terms of the personal role of the Fourth and Fifth Dukes of Sutherland, and the broader impact of the estate management on the mechanics and expectations of politics in the county.

Some Reflections on the Role of a Political Opposition in New Nations

1962 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. E. Apter
Keyword(s):  
Political Life ◽  
Political Opposition ◽  
Opposition Party ◽  
Political Actions ◽  
Normal Feature

The role of a political opposition has proved ambiguous in most newly independent nations. New governments rarely see the necessity for a regular opposition party nor do they always accept the idea of opposition as a normal feature of government. There are many reasons why this is so. Most new nations have come into being after a prolonged period of struggle with colonial authorities which has caused nationalist leaders to monopolize loyalties. Also, opposition groups having themselves been associated with nationalism at some stage of their existence, often have an anti-government reflex common to those whose political actions have been aimed at changing the fundamental character of a country rather than accepting well established rules of political life and working within them. Indeed, many opposition leaders in new nations regard the new government much as they did their colonial nredecessors, i.e. as basically illegitimate.

Political Parties

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angus Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Local Level ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Party Government ◽  
Parliamentary Government ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth

This chapter examines the emergence, roles, and meanings of ‘party’ within British politics from the late eighteenth century to the present day. It traces the transition from ‘mixed’ government to ‘parliamentary’ government and ultimately to ‘party’ government. The altered function and nature of political parties within these shifting constitutional contexts is assessed. How parties functioned at the parliamentary and local level is also explored. It moves on to consider how historians have approached different aspects of party activity—their organization of the contest for power in Parliament; specific party histories; embodiments of ideology; how parties have organized themselves; winning elections—and evaluates the role of the idea of a ‘two-party system’ within British politics and historiography as the ‘natural’ alignment of party activity.

Religion and the Churches

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.J.D. Green
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
British Politics ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
British State ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
Do So

This chapter explores the role of religion and the churches in British political life since 1800. It argues that during this period the British state gradually attempted to remove religious dispute from public life, and yet frequently failed to do so. The chapter examines a series of political problems posed by questions of religion and the churches, including nineteenth-century Ireland, the proliferation of diverse varieties of Christianity throughout the United Kingdom, the connections between religion and the political parties, and the challenges of secularization. It concludes that, even in a mostly secular country, British politics continues to be haunted by religion.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY IN VICTORIAN POLITICAL THOUGHT: T. H. GREEN, HERBERT SPENCER, AND HENRY SIDGWICK

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
DUNCAN BELL ◽  
CASPER SYLVEST
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
International Society ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Liberal Internationalism ◽  
Intellectual Elite ◽  
Herbert Spencer ◽  
Henry Sidgwick ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
Fundamental Distinction

In the second half of the nineteenth century, British liberal ideology contained an open-ended vision of international order. The vision usually included a notion of an incipient or immanent international society composed of civilized nations. The fundamental distinction between civilized and barbarian nations meant that while this perceived society was international, in no sense was it global. In this essay we outline some of the broader characteristics of the internationalist outlook that many liberals shared and specifically discuss the claims about international society that they articulated. Liberal internationalism was a broad church and many (but not all) of its fundamental assumptions about the nature and direction of international progress and the importance of civilization were shared by large swathes of the intellectual elite. These assumptions are analysed by exploring the conceptions of international society found in three of the most influential thinkers of the time, T. H. Green, Herbert Spencer and Henry Sidgwick. Finally, the essay turns to the limitations of this vision of international society, especially in the context of the role of empire.

Prophets of Party in American Political History

The Forum ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 685-709
Author(s):  
Daniel Schlozman ◽  
Sam Rosenfeld
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
The Body ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Collective Actors ◽  
Do So

Abstract This article pursues a developmental understanding of American parties as autonomous and thick collective actors through a comparison of four key historical actors we term “prophets of party”: partisans of the nineteenth-century Party Period; Progressive reformers; mid-twentieth century liberal Democrats; and activists in and around the body popularly known as the McGovern-Fraser Commission. Leading theories portray political parties as the vehicles either of ambitious politicians or of groups eager to extract benefits from the state. Yet such analyses leave underdetermined the path from such actors’ desires for power to the parties’ wielding of it. That path is mediated by partisan forms and practices that have varied widely across institutional and cultural context. As parties search for electoral majority, they do so in the long shadow of ideas and practices, layered and accreted across time, concerning the role of parties in political life. We analyze four such prophesies, trace their layered contributions to their successors, and reflect on their legacy for contemporary party politics.

Green and Sidgwick

2021 ◽  
pp. 440-481
Author(s):  
John Skorupski
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
Final Section ◽  
German Idealism ◽  
Absolute Idealism ◽  
Henry Sidgwick ◽  
Late Modern

The end of the nineteenth century saw a rethinking of German idealism led by Thomas Hill Green, and a refinement of utilitarianism by Henry Sidgwick. This chapter examines their restatements of the two great late modern syntheses: absolute idealism and utilitarian liberalism. For both, the crisis of religion was fundamental. In Green’s case this meant a return to absolute idealism, with religion at its core, and a new application to the politics of liberalism. In Sidgwick’s case it led to an implicit nihilism. Sidgwick’s analysis of normative ‘intuition’ is discussed, his thesis of the dualism of practical reason is examined, and it is pointed out that on his own penetrating account of normative warrant, neither egoism nor utilitarianism is warranted. The final section of the chapter reconsiders the role of sentiment, will, and reason as bases of impartiality.

Marx's Inferno

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Clare Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Textual Scholarship ◽  
The Past ◽  
Classical Political Economy

This book reconstructs the major arguments of Karl Marx's Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading of a seminal classic. Rather than simply a critique of classical political economy, the book argues that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers' movement. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. Placing Marx against the background of nineteenth-century socialism, the book shows how Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante's Inferno, and how Marx, playing the role of Virgil for the proletariat, introduced partisans of workers' emancipation to the secret depths of the modern “social Hell.” In this manner, Marx revised republican ideas of freedom in response to the rise of capitalism. Combining research on Marx's interlocutors, textual scholarship, and forays into recent debates, the book traces the continuities linking Marx's theory of capitalism to the tradition of republican political thought. It immerses the reader in socialist debates about the nature of commerce, the experience of labor, the power of bosses and managers, and the possibilities of political organization. The book rescues those debates from the past and shows how they speak to ever-renewed concerns about political life in today's world.

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