Administrative Reform in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain and its Empire (eBook)

A System of Economy

Sebastian Meurer (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
288 Seiten
Boydell & Brewer Ltd (Verlag)
978-1-80543-615-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Indispensable for understanding the historical forces that shaped modern governance.How did Enlightenment philosophy shape the modern bureaucratic state? While thinkers like Adam Smith and David Hume are celebrated for their contributions to political economy, the crucial work of administrative reformers has largely been forgotten-until now. Here, this question is explored through the untold story of the specialists of public administration, such as the Commissioners for Examining the Public Accounts, whose pioneering efforts to translate political economy into practice laid the foundation for contemporary public administration. This methodologically refined study re-evaluates Britain's administrative reforms of the late eighteenth century. It traces how systematic, resource-oriented administrative rationality replaced patrimonial notions of office, which treated public offices as royal privileges similar to titles of nobility. Sebastian Meurer relates the British reforms to contemporary administrative reform processes in British India and Ireland and reveals their manifold interconnections. Furthermore, the book offers an analysis of the very process, in which new notions pervaded public administration and traces the interrelations of different perspectives and their gradual shift of credibility. By connecting the rise of public administration with the early social sciences, this monograph illuminates how ideas once confined to philosophical discourse were adapted into the practical realities of governance, reform, and statecraft across the British Empire.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations

Introduction

PART I: CONCEPTUALISING ECONOMICAL ADMINISTRATION
1. Science and the State
2. Corruption, Crown Influence, and Reform
3. A System of Economy

PART II: PRACTICING ECONOMICAL REFORM
4. Great Britain I: Initiating Reform
5. British India: Enforcing Reform
6. Great Britain II: Assessing Reform
7. Ireland: Struggling with Reform

Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 22.7.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Studies in the Eighteenth Century
• Verlagsort: Woodbridge
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 160 x 160 mm
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Wirtschaftspolitik
• Schlagworte: Administrative Reform • British Empire • British India • Charles Cornwallis • Eighteenth-century Britain • Indian Civil Service • Irish Administration • Political Economy • public administration • Robert Wellesley • Scottish Political Economy • State Formation
• ISBN-10: 1-80543-615-5 / 1805436155
• ISBN-13: 978-1-80543-615-7 / 9781805436157