Parliamentarism
From Burke to Weber

A revisionist interpretation of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century political ideas, including novel readings of canonical authors such as Burke and Mill.

William Selinger (Author)

9781108468855, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 June 2020

267 pages
15.5 x 23 x 1.5 cm, 0.4 kg

'Selinger's book is not only a fresh reading of intellectual history intended for professional historians but also a call to rethink our current visions of the so-called liberal democracies in the light of the parliamentary tradition.' Ján Tomaštík and Jan Holzer, International Journal of Parliamentary Studies

For eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors such as Burke, Constant, and Mill, a powerful representative assembly that freely deliberated and controlled the executive was the de?ning institution of a liberal state. Yet these ?gures also feared that representative assemblies were susceptible to usurpation, gridlock, and corruption. Parliamentarism was their answer to this dilemma: a constitutional model that enabled a nation to be truly governed by a representative assembly. O?ering novel interpretations of canonical liberal authors, this history of liberal political ideas suggests a new paradigm for interpreting the development of modern political thought, inspiring fresh perspectives on historical issues from the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries. In doing so, Selinger suggests the wider signi?cance of parliament and the theory of parliamentarism in the development of European political thought, revealing how contemporary democratic theory, and indeed the challenges facing representative government today, are historically indebted to classical parliamentarism.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The eighteenth-century House of Commons
2. Edmund Burke's theory of parliamentary politics
3. The French Revolution and the liberal parliamentary turn
4. Reinventing parliamentarism: the significance of Benjamin Constant
5. Democracy in America, parliamentarism in France: Tocqueville's unconventional parliamentary liberalism
6. John Stuart Mill and the Victorian theory of Parliament
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Liberalism & centre democratic ideologies [JPFK], Political science & theory [JPA], Social & political philosophy [HPS]