The Philosophical Review/Volume 1/Review: Sidgewick - The Elements of Politics

by Jeremiah Whipple Jenks

The Elements of Politics. By Henry Sidgwick. Macmillan & Co., 1891. — pp. viii, 623.

It seems a misfortune that such books as this one of Mr. Sidgwick on The Elements of Politics are not more generally read. The great body of our voters, even of our most intelligent citizens who are to a considerable extent students of politics, read, in the main, what things have been done and are doing in politics. They get their ideas of what ought to be done, only with reference to specific measures. In these cases, they are compelled usually to accept the short-sighted view of some politician who, however honest he may be, is so interested in his own plans and methods that he has no clear oversight of the broad field of political action. How much better and more profitable it would be if with these practical views they could get and could keep in mind some general ideas upon the nature and methods of government that have been thought out by so sane and temperate a thinker as is Mr. Sidgwick!

This book aims to give, as we learn from the preface, a discussion of the "chief general considerations that enter into the rational discussion of political questions in modern states." The author wishes us to get in mind, so far as possible, the ideals toward which we should look as legislators and as citizens. It is not enough to consider things as they are: we must also, in considering man as he is in a civilized state, see what ought to be in government, in order that man may readily work toward his own welfare, and thus toward the advancement of civilization. As is to be expected from one who says that his " general view of politics was originally derived from the writings of Bentham and J. S. Mill," and who has in good part rested upon Bentham in his conclusions, while the point of view is ethical, it is distinctively utilitarian. What the state ought to do, means what it ought to do to promote the general happiness of the citizens.

The method of such a work must be, of course, not historical, but, in the main, psychological; and the conclusions rest upon the nature of man as he is seen to be in the most civilized states of to-day. Reasoning chiefly from these premises of man's nature, the author is too able and careful a man to think that his conclusions are directly applicable to any one society of to-day, or that they are more than ideals toward which we may work. Though, for example, he suggests that the direct intervention of the voters in government is desirable to settle a disagreement that has resulted in a deadlock between two legislative chambers, he would hardly be ready to advocate a hasty application of this principle in Congress to-day in order to settle the tariff controversy. He thinks that the term of office of a representative in the Legislature should be from five to seven years. We might not agree with him on this point; but a member of the Constitutional Convention that is soon to be held in New York ought not to neglect a consideration of the reasons that he gives for his opinion, and should see how far such reasons are valid in this state at the present time, and how far they may be applicable.

The book, as is logical, considers first the scope and methods and fundamental conceptions of government, its specific acts of intervention in the enforcement of contracts, the righting of wrongs, the maintenance of the governmental organs, the conduct of business with other states, etc., and then afterward takes up in some detail the methods and instruments of government.

In considering the Legislature, the Executive Department, the Judiciary, the relations of one of these to the other, political parties, etc., the author does not describe, as has been before intimated, the real form of organization of these departments in any one specific state, but he rather considers the form that is most desirable in the most civilized states of the present. Incidentally, of course, many items of information with reference to the different governments are given.

It would be difficult to speak in too high terms of the general temper of the author. One rarely finds a book on political questions that shows the same sanity of judgment as does this, or one whose author, following the deductive method, keeps so prominently in mind the limitations that must be placed upon the application of his conclusions. One might wish often, in reading the book, that more had been given with reference to political forms and methods and ideas in different states, but the limits of the book would not permit more; and, taking the book for what it pretends to be, I do not know where to get one that it will pay students of politics or practical politicians better to read.

Jeremiah W. Jenks.