Author(s): PEI Ya-qin, School of Public Management, Northwest University
Pages: 1-6
Year: 2016 Issue:  1
Journal: Journal of Shanxi Normal University(Social Science Edition)
Keyword:  T.B.Macaulay; Parliamentary Reform; Whiggism; interpretation of history;
Abstract: As a typical English Whig in the early modern time,Macaulay objected the methodology of applying the abstract theory to political analysis. In the practical parliamentary politics,he held a moderate attitude and he supported the 1832 Parliamentary Reform and meanwhile opposed the radical democracy. He wrote English history in order to expound his political opinion,thereby developed the Whiggist view of history. Macaulay’s Whiggism was not a dogmatic political doctrine,nor was it a kind of opportunism without principle. It was on the premise of the aristocracy’s political responsibility emphasized the political order and material improvement and aimed at the protection of the people’s liberty and rights.