Burke and Paine and Two Forms of the Constitution

Burke and Paine and Two Forms of the Constitution

In the second half of the eighteenth century Britain was the venue for a wide-ranging debate about the nature of constitutional government. Central to this debate were Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke. Paine’s argument that a constitution only exists when it is given a written form persuaded almost all the world. But Burke’s temperamental and traditional constitution survived in Paine’s birthplace Britain. As Scotland contemplates a future as a normally constituted nation, perhaps it is time the English looked again at the idea of the constitution.

Dan Hind was a publisher for ten years. in 2009 he left the industry to develop a program of media reform centered on public commissioning. His journalism has appeared in the Guardian, the New Scientist, Lobster and the Times Literary Supplement. His books include The Threat to Reason, The Return of the Public and The Magic Kingdom. He lives in London.