The Persistence of Party
Ideas of Harmonious Discord in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Offers a fundamental re-evaluation of the origins and importance of the idea of 'party' in British politics and political thought.

Max Skjönsberg (Author)

9781108794992, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 December 2022

389 pages
22.7 x 15.1 x 2.2 cm, 0.57 kg

'Max Skjönsberg's informative and engaging new book … addresses the way political thinkers grapple with the perils of partisanship … It is clearly organized, and Skjönsberg presents the arguments crisply and directly. The source base is impressive and includes correspondence and papers alongside the published works. At a time when partisan polarization seems more dangerous than ever, this book provides an illuminating look at the origin of those concerns.' Chris Dudley, Journal of British Studies

Political parties are taken for granted today, but how was the idea of party viewed in the eighteenth century, when core components of modern, representative politics were trialled? From Bolingbroke to Burke, political thinkers regarded party as a fundamental concept of politics, especially in the parliamentary system of Great Britain. The paradox of party was best formulated by David Hume: while parties often threatened the total dissolution of the government, they were also the source of life and vigour in modern politics. In the eighteenth century, party was usually understood as a set of flexible and evolving principles, associated with names and traditions, which categorised and managed political actors, voters, and commentators. Max Skjönsberg thus demonstrates that the idea of party as ideological unity is not purely a nineteenth- or twentieth-century phenomenon but can be traced to the eighteenth century.

Introduction. Party in history and politics
1. Background, contexts, and discourses
2. Rapin on the origins and nature of party division in Britain
3. Bolingbroke's country party opposition platform
4. David Hume's early essays on party politics
5. Faction detected? Pulteney, Perceval, and the Tories
6. Hume on the parties' speculative systems of thought
7. Hume and the history of party in England
8. Political transformations during the Seven Years' War: Hume and Burke
9. 'Not men, but measures': John Brown on free government without faction
10. Edmund Burke and the Rockingham Whigs
11. Burke's thoughts on the cause of the present discontents
12. Burke and his party in the age of revolution
13. Burke and the Scottish enlightenment
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political parties [JPL], Political science & theory [JPA], Social & political philosophy [HPS], British & Irish history [HBJD1]