Empire and Liberty in Adam Ferguson’s Republicanism

Bibliographic Data

ID11348117
AuthorsElena Yi-Jia Zeng (0000-0002-4479-4434, King’s College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume48
Issue7
Pages909-929
Publication date2022-10-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory of European Ideas (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0191-6599 • E-ISSN: 1873-541X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01916599.2022.2040045
OpenAlexW4212778467
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited38

Adam Ferguson’s imperial thought casts new light on the age-old republican dilemma of the tension between empire and liberty. Generations of republican writers had been haunted by this issue as the decline of Rome proved that imperial expansion would eventually ruin the liberty of a state. Many eighteenth-century Scottish thinkers regarded this as an insoluble conundrum and thus became critics of empire. Ferguson shared their basic views but, paradoxically, was still able to defend the British Empire in the debates over the American Revolution. His argument effectively offered a viable solution to the republican dilemma, which distinguished him from his contemporaries. In light of this, I argue that political representation was the pivotal conception for Ferguson to make empire and liberty compatible. It was on this ground that he could advocate the union with Ireland, which he believed would lead to a lasting balance of power in Europe

Argument (complex analysis · Balance (ability · Dilemma · Empire · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · State (computer science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence · Scottish History and National Identity

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