76 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
ment. During the eighteenth and the greater part of the nine- teenth centuries American political thought was concerned primarily, in fact almost exclusively, with the protection of indi- vidual rights. A minimum of government and a maximum of individual liberty represented the primary standards of political thought and action. From our present perspective we can appre- ciate the great service rendered by these essentially negative political ideas. They strengthened that feeling of personal responsibility and initiative which has contributed so much toward our industrial development and served to maintain that alertness to possible encroachment upon the domain of indi- vidual liberty which has been the admiration and envy of the people of continental Europe. Furthermore, the restriction of government activity to the protection of person and property, and the care of the dependent, defective, and delinquent classes, enabled the country to train the electorate at a time when the func- tions of government were few and the possibilities of harm due to inexperience reduced to a minimum. Local government was then looked upon as the cradle of American liberties and as the bulwark against the possible tyranny of the state and federal governments ; it was expected to preserve and foster a feeling of opposition toward any extension of the positive action of govern- ment.
Viewed in the perspective of the last hundred years, the con- trast between the conditions out of which our ideas of local gov- ernment developed and the circumstances which now confront us, is fraught with lessons which we cannot afford to ignore if we hope to build up vigorous local institutions. The menace to indi- vidual liberty from the tyranny of government is no longer a real one, and to this extent,' therefore, the justification for the essentially negative prevailing views of government has dis- appeared. On the other hand, the concentration of population and the growth of great industrial centers have brought into the foreground a mass of new problems which the community is com- pelled to face. Many of them come directly within the legitimate sphere of government, but so strong is the hold of the political ideas of the eighteenth century that in most of our cities we must
