Blackwell Reference Online

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“Stability,” said the Controller, “stability. No civilization without social stability. No social stability without individual stability.” Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932) British political and constitutional stability in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century disguises the complexity of concepts of the state in circulation. This survey attempts to explore that complexity, albeit as a parasite on the wide and detailed research available on the subject. The British debate appears narrow when compared to the Continent in the same period, where the distinctions between political theories, such as those of Durkheim and Sorel, were much starker and far less capable of producing a pragmatic political consensus. In Britain, debates about the state resulted in legislation for a mixed economy and considerable centralized provision for the individual, by using taxation to extract the “social” value of wealth and then to use it for social purposes. The extension of the suffrage and the successful waging of a protracted European war also suggest stability rather than innovation in state functions. It is argued that although the parameters of debate were relatively narrow, and did not include influential Marxist or fascist groups until late in the period, there were multifarious distinctions within those parameters which were vehemently contested in both political and theoretical ... log in or subscribe to read full text