Bagehot, Walter

Bagehot, Walter. The English Constitution. 1867. Oxford University Press. 1933. 312 pp.

This classic work was the first to make clear the real nature of the British constitution in its modern development. That constitution is not based, as Montesque thought, on the "separation of powers," but, on the contrary, on "the close union, the nearly complete fusion, of the executive and legislative powers." In this respect Bagehot contrasted the British and American constitutions to the disadvantage of the latter. As the preservation of ordered liberty depends upon the existence of a sound political system, Bagehot's book deserves the close study of Americans as well as Englishmen. He was a brilliant stylist as well as a brilliant thinker.

Bagehot, Walter. Economic Studies. 1880. Stanford Calif.: Academic Reports. 1953. 236 pp.

The essays in this book mainly elaborate classical English laissez-faire economics. They deal with Adam Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, "the late Mr. Mill," and such subjects as "The Postulates of English Political Economy" and "The Growth of Capital." "Bagehot, Editor of The Economist, was one on the finest thinkers and writers of his time. He was always an advocate of individual
and commercial freedom. His best known books are on the English Constitution and Lombard Street." - PI.