‘The too clever by half people’ and parliament

Journal article

Abstract:: The role of intellectuals in shaping pressure on parliament has often been neglected and still more frequently downplayed. Even intellectuals themselves have doubted their own political importance; hence Walter Bagehot's observation that ‘the too clever by half people, who live in Bohemia , ought to have no more influence in parliament, than they have in England, and they can scarcely have less’. This article considers what it is to be an intellectual in politics – and what political role int...
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Institution:

University of Oxford

Division:

HUMS

Department:

History Faculty

Oxford college:

St John's College

Role:

Author

Language:: English
Keywords:: A.V. Dicey

universities

intellectuals

Social Science Association (SSA)

Benthamism

Walter Bagehot

British constitution

royal commissions

Erskine May

parliament

pressure groups

Comteian positivists

Jeremy Bentham
Pubs id:: pubs:821520
UUID:: uuid:632a753b-298f-4c46-9f5f-f7f30128bddf
Local pid:: pubs:821520
Source identifiers:: 821520
Deposit date:: 2018-01-26

Copyright holder:: Parliamentary History Yearbook Trust
Notes:: This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available online from Wiley at https://doi.org/10.1111/1750-0206.12333

Licence:: Terms and Conditions of Use for Oxford University Research Archive

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