Democracy and Liberty

by William Edward Hartpole Lecky

When democracy turns, as it often does, into a corrupt plutocracy, both national decadence and social revolution are being prepared." So wrote the Irish-born historian W. E. H. Lecky (1838-1903) in this devastating assault on mass democracy.

Lecky spoke for the landed gentry, and the upper middle classes of late Victorian England when he warned his countrymen that an unfettered democracy would destroy the balance of interests in the community, and thereby undermine the Constitution.

"A tendency to democracy, " said Lecky, "does not mean a tendency to parliamentary government, or even a tendency toward greater liberty." Indeed, the type of democracy emerging in Britain seemed to Lecky to be the rudiment of socialism.

Genres: Politics

1034 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

William Edward Hartpole Lecky was an Irish historian and political theorist. Born at Newtown Park, near Dublin, he was the eldest son of John Hartpole Lecky, a landowner. He was educated at Kingstown, Armagh, at Cheltenham College, and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated BA in 1859 and MA in 1863, and where he studied divinity with a view to becoming a priest in the Protestant Church of Ireland.

Reviews

[James Dempsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

For three thoroughly enjoyable years I have studied within the mystical catacomb that bears this great authors name; most recently, and affectionately, on the second floor - the upper Lecky. This alien yet all the same familiar soul has shadowed my Trinity studies. I pass his bust daily, his statue, too, probably every day. I have attempted to probe his great oeuvre, but his work quickly proved tiring. This dry tone, I oft thought, is in need of sauce or spice. I imagined with my minds eye, a grandfatherly figure, speaking slow monotone; what a drab. Holy Moses, proceed please, i would ache. This has been my shallow impression for long.

I have all of his work, downloaded, pdf charged and ready accessible, at all times. Yet I have never earnestly probed any - excepting ofc his LOPO, of which I have a first edition copy (in need of rebinding) - of his work with great stead. Finally, my hour has shone. At last my light shines and curtain calls; James, you need to write your capstone.

Alas! My twidling past busts and dithering by statues will bare some fruit. Lecky, my naked muse, you sit waiting. I will take this leviathan work, two volumes and a thousand pages, and contextualise tf out of it. I will be writing this history. Nobody else, quite seriously, has ever done it Nobody has been willing to sit patiently or consciously through your drawl. Your mind wise, your word graceful, your insight undeniable. I will take to this challenge, and succeed in it.