The Online Library of Liberty

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• Preface to the Second Edition
• One: the Doctrine of the Separation of Powers and Institutional Theory
• Two: the Foundation of the Doctrine
• Three: the Theory of the Balanced Constitution
• Four: Montesquieu
• Five: the Matchless Constitution and Its Enemies
• Six: the Doctrine In America
• Seven: the Doctrine In France
• Eight: the Rise and Fall of Parliamentary Government
• Nine: From the Third Republic to the Fifth
• Ten: Progressivism and Political Science In America
• Eleven: Political Theory, Constitutionalism, and the Behavioural Approach
• Twelve: a Model of a Theory of Constitutionalism
• Thirteen: Epilogue: the Separation of Powers and the Administrative State
• Bibliography

M. J. C. Vile

For John and Richard

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

This work concentrates upon the history and analysis of a strand of constitutional thought which attempts to balance the freedom of the individual citizen with the necessary exercise of governmental power—a dilemma facing us as much today as at any time in our history. I believe that the study of the ways in which this problem has been approached in the past can provide invaluable lessons for today.

In this new edition, appearing thirty years after the first, I have not attempted to revise the text of the original. This is due in part to the fact that so much has been published in the interim and in part because I have since come across a great deal of which I was previously unaware. Thus, any attempt to take all this into account would mean writing a completely new work. At the same time, although I could easily add more material, I do not believe that doing so would necessarily alter the broad outlines of the book, nor would it alter the argument it presents. I have, however, taken the opportunity to add an Epilogue in which the major developments of the past thirty years in Britain and the United States are surveyed, and an attempt has been made to carry the essence of the theory of the separation of powers forward to meet the conditions of government at the end of the twentieth century. I have also added a bibliography, a serious omission from the first edition. Although it can hardly claim to be comprehensive, this bibliography includes many works which were not referred to in the text but which will perhaps assist students who wish to pursue the subject further.

I have the undeserved good fortune to have had the support of my sons, John and Richard, to whom this edition is dedicated, and of my wife, Nancy. For more years than either of us cares to remember, my friend Derek Crabtree has provided advice, criticism, and, above all, bonhomie.

• Canterbury

June 1997