The Psychological Approach: A Contribution of Walter Bagehot to Political Theory

Walter Bagehot attempted to solve the problem concerned of assuming the truth of the doctrine of natural selection, and how to account for the momentous transition from the brute level of the struggle for existence to a human level of social organization and cooperation. To Bagehot this problem was the essential one and the key to all subsequent development of the human race. In answering his problem Bagehot brings to light the role played by the irrational and sub-rational forces of human nature inherited from the countless ages of revolutionary process