Edmund Burke

Overview

Edmund Burke was an Irish-born member of the British Parliament for nearly thirty years, and his political thought is found in speeches and pamphlets rather than in treatises. He supported the American colonists' complaints, spent years prosecuting the head of the East India Company's Bengal administration for abuses, and argued for relief of Catholic disabilities in Ireland, a record that sits awkwardly with his later reputation. Reflections on the Revolution in France, written in 1790 while the revolution was still widely admired in England, argues that rights derived from abstract theory are a poor guide to governing actual people, that a constitution is an inheritance to be repaired rather than a plan to be drawn, and that sweeping away established institutions would end in military dictatorship. His Speech to the Electors of Bristol is the classic statement of the representative as trustee rather than delegate. Critics then and since argue that the position defends whatever happens to exist, and that it understated the injustices the revolution was attacking.

Where to start reading

• Reflections on the Revolution in France 1790

  A long pamphlet against the revolution and its English admirers, and the founding text of modern conservative argument about reform.

• Speech to the Electors of Bristol 1774

  A short address arguing that a representative owes constituents his judgement rather than obedience, and betrays them if he sacrifices it.

Part of

• Conservatism

Sources

1. Edmund Burke Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
2. Edmund Burke Wikipedia