Arisztokráciát vagy demokráciát? A konzervatív gondolkodás demokráciaképe a XIX. század utolsó harmadának Angliájában
Aristocracy or Democracy? The Conception of Democracy in Conservative Thinking in Late-Victorian Britain

Summary/Abstract: Though nobody can accuse the present-day Conservative parties and movements of being the sworn enemies of democracy, it is an indisputable fact that Conservative thinking, following the traditions of Burke, had for a long time serious reservations concerning political democracy. As a matter of fact, Conservatives are even today less enthusiastic about the democratic form of government than their rivals, the liberals or the socialists. This study makes an attempt to give a picture of how the most prominent late-Victorian Conservative thinkers evaluated the process of democratization and its social consequences. The paper is concerned primarily with the views of three scholars: the author of „Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, James Fitzjames Stephen, the famous historian of law, H.S. Maine, who expressed his sceptical views on democracy in „Popular Government”, and another noted historian, W.H.Lecky, whose „Democracy and Freedom” presented a crushing opinion on the prospects of democracy. It is interesting to note that although in the second part of the twentieth century it has become almost a commonplace in political theory that democracy and liberty are inseparable, this was far from being the case even in late-Victoran Britain.

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