Abstract

Government and Liberty

This article focuses on the book "The Reconciliation of Government With Liberty," written by John W. Burgess. In times of great national turmoil one hears less of the dogma that governments exist only to promote individual liberty, and more of the aphorism that self-preservation is, with states as with men, the first law of nature. Englishmen must have fully realized this during the past fifteen months. It is quite appropriate, therefore, that one should examine anew the relations which are supposed to exist between popular sovereignty and national power, between constitutional government and individual freedom in a word, that one should see whether history really supports some of the doctrines which political scientists have taken for granted.