The Persistence of Party: Ideas of Harmonious Discord in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Ideas in Context)

"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: whilst 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. In other words, Max Skjèonsberg persuasively 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"-- "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: whilst 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. In other words, Max Skjönsberg persuasively 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"-- Provided by publisher 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. Cover Contents Figures Note on the Text Abbreviations 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 Enlightenmen Conclusion Bibliography Index This fundamental re-evaluation of the origins and importance of the idea of 'party' in British political thought and politics in the eighteenth century draws on the writings of Rapin, Bolingbroke, David Hume, John Brown and Edmund Burke to demonstrate that attitudes to party were more complex and penetrating than previously thought.