ABSTRACT
Spencer’s scientifi c views on politics emerged eff ortlessly from his philosophical labours. His ideas were disconnected from the great political events of his era: he felt nothing over the failure of the revolutions; nor did he desire or fear any future ones. It was the growth of conventional politics that intrigued him, but his curiosity was not aroused by the detail of parliamentary aff airs and the intrigues of politicians. Rather, he was interested in the theoretical possibilities of parliamentary evolution: this was not a practical stance. When refl ecting on the prospects of representative government Spencer was not timely; he completed his diagnosis several years before the confused and passionate debates over electoral reform that unsettled the other Englishmen in and . e same was true of his well-known essays of , Th e Man “versus” the State. ese were not topical reactions to the revival of socialism, but reiterations of ideas he had fi rst elucidated over quarter of a century before. In contrast to the protean qualities of Spencer’s psychology and biology, his political logic remained constant: once he had determined his views on this subject they were subjected only to minor modifi cations and recycled either as essays or as parts of Th e Principles of Sociology. Indeed, Spencer often made little distinction between these formats, and many chapters of Th e Principles of Sociology fi rst appeared as essays in popular journals.
