Walter Bagehot

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Walter Bagehot

Walter Bagehot (born February 3, 1826 in Langport , Somerset , † March 24, 1877 ibid) was a British economist , journalist and editor of the weekly newspaper The Economist . Bagehot's analyzes and writings have contributed to the English political system and understanding of parliamentarism and the principle of central banks .

Life

Lombard Street , 1873

Bagehot attended University College London , which he graduated with a master's in 1848. Although as a lawyer admitted he did not practice as such, but to his castle in the banking sector working father.

After writing for various magazines , he gained notoriety as the third editor and editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper The Economist from 1861 to 1877, the founder of which was his father-in-law, James Wilson. Under Bagehot's leadership, the newspaper gained influence over policymakers.

In 1867 Bagehot wrote the book The English Constitution , in which he examined the structure of the United Kingdom , particularly the position of Parliament and the British monarchy and the contrasts between the British and American governments. The fundamental distinction in comparative governance between presidentialism and parliamentarism goes back to Bagehot's treatise. The English Constitution is considered a standard work and has been translated into different languages.

Five years later, in 1872, he wrote Physics and Politics , in which he created the still popular expression "the cake of custom". In 1873, Lombard Street was a useful work for economists. In the field of sociological theories , he wrote some historical studies and he can be compared to his contemporary Henry James Sumner Maine . A collection of bibliographic and economic essays was published posthumously .

Bagehot contributed to the development of modern racism and social Darwinism . His utterances related to both allegedly lower races and lower classes. With regard to his own lower classes, he claimed that there were “crowds of people scarcely more civilized than the majority of two thousand years ago” in England.

In honor of Bagehot, the British Political Studies Association annually awards the Walter Bagehot Prize for the best dissertation in the field of government and public administration . The Economist publishes a weekly column on British politics under his name.

Honors

In 1973 the asteroid (2901) Bagehot was named after him.

Fonts

  • The English Constitution. Chapman and Hall, London 1867; most recently: Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, ISBN 0-19-283975-6 ( gutenberg.org ).
    • Wilhelm Hennis, Hans Maier (ed.): The English constitution (=  Politica . Volume 33 ). 2nd ed. Luchterhand, Neuwied 1971 ( socserv.mcmaster.ca [PDF; 551 kB ] English: The English Constitution . 1872. Translated by Klaus Streifthau, first edition: Chapman and Hall, London 1867).
  • Walter Bagehot: Physics and Politics Or Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of Natural Selection and Inheritance to Political Society . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-511-78313-5 , doi : 10.1017 / CBO9780511783135 (English, first edition: King, London 1872).
  • Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market. King, London 1873; most recently: Wiley, New York 1999, ISBN 0-471-34499-0 ( gutenberg.org ).
  • The origin of the nations. Reflections on the Influence of Natural Selection and Heredity on the Formation of Political Communities. Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1874 digitized version (compilation of previously individually published essays: the preparatory age / the benefit of the struggle / how nations emerge (1,2) / the age of discussions / progress that can be proven from a socio-political point of view )

literature

  • Franz Nuscheler : Walter Bagehot and the English constitutional theory. History of a classic model of parliamentary government. (=  Heidelberg political writings . Volume 2 ). A. Hain, Meisenheim am Glan 1969, OCLC 5521310 (dissertation Heidelberg, 1967).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Joseph Hamburger: Bagehot, Walter (1826–1877), political commentator, economist, and journalist . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . doi : 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 1029 .
  2. ↑ page 18 and page 35
  3. ↑ See Chapter 5, Bagehot Rewrites Gobineau. In: Edward Beasley: The Victorian Reinvention of Race. New Racisms and the Problem of Grouping in the Human Sciences. New York / London 2010, pp. 81–96.
  4. ^ Walter Bagehot: Physics and Politics: or, Thoughts on the Application of Principles of 'Natural Selection' and 'Inheritance' to Political Society. New York 1873, p. 41 .
  5. ^ Walter Bagehot: The English Constitution. London 1867, p. 7 ( online ).
  6. ↑ PSA Academic Prizes 2019
  7. ^ Lutz D. Schmadel : Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . Fifth Revised and Enlarged Edition. Ed .: Lutz D. Schmadel. 5th edition. Springer Verlag , Berlin , Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 978-3-540-29925-7 , pp. 186 (English, 992 pp., Link.springer.com [accessed on September 21, 2019] Original title: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . First edition: Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg 1992): “1973 DP. Discovered 1973 Feb. 27 by L. Kohoutek at Bergedorf. "
personal data
SURNAME Bagehot, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British economist, journalist and constitutional theorist
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH Langport , Somerset , UK
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 1877
Place of death Langport , Somerset , UK