The Man versus the State
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~71,200 words · 338 passages
Cite this work
- APAHerbert Spencer. (n.d.). The Man versus the State. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/herbert-spencer/the-man-versus-the-state
- MLAHerbert Spencer. "The Man versus the State." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/herbert-spencer/the-man-versus-the-state.
- ChicagoHerbert Spencer. The Man versus the State. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/herbert-spencer/the-man-versus-the-state.
What it is about
The Man versus the State (1884).
Context and history
Four essays in which Spencer protests that liberalism has turned: the old enemies of power now legislate on everything. It is the classic text of individualist liberalism against the emerging welfare state, by the man who coined 'survival of the fittest' — a phrase Darwin later adopted, not the other way round.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
The Westminster Review for April 1860, contained an article entitled " Parliamentary Reform : the Dangers and the Safeguards." In that article I ventured to predict some results of political changes then proposed. Eeduced to its simplest expression, the thesis maintained was that, unless due precautions were taken, increase of freedom in form would be followed by decrease of freedom in fact. Nothing has occurred to alter the belief I then expressed. The drift of legislation since that time has been of the kind anticipated. Dictatorial measures, rapidly multiplied, have tended continually to narrow the liberties of individuals; and have done this in a double way. Regulations have been made in yearly-growing numbers, restraining the citizen in directions where his actions were previously unchecked, and compelling actions which previously he m
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