ABSTRACT

Arguably, both the institutional setup and the concomitant political as well as administrative practices that made the British state were thoroughly reformed in the century between the Glorious Revolution and the Great Reform Act. Every step of this process was intensely discussed in an expanding public sphere that reached far beyond the political elite. However, in spite of this, the English word “reform” only attained its modern meaning of intentional institutional change during the 1780s. This chapter traces the emergence of a British reform language with regard to the state both on the onomasiological and the semasiological level. Particular attention is paid to the impact of Scottish Political Economy on the one hand and the remarkable resilience of ancient constitution thinking on the other.