Sociology

Herbert Spencer argued that in a militant type of society the state would become more centralised and administrative, as compulsory education clearly showed (1882)

Herbert Spencer concludes from his principle of equal freedom that individuals have the Right to Ignore the State (1851)

Herbert Spencer makes a distinction between the “militant type of society” based upon violence and the “industrial type of society” based upon peaceful economic activity (1882)

Herbert Spencer notes that traditionally the growth in government revenue has come about because of war (1882)

Herbert Spencer observes that class structures emerge in societies as a result of war and violence (1882)

Herbert Spencer on customs which are the result of human action but not of deliberate design (1876)

Herbert Spencer on human nature and the right to property (1851)

Herbert Spencer on the prospects for liberty (1882)

Herbert Spencer on the right of political and economic “dissenters” to have their different beliefs and practices respected by the state (1842)

Spencer on spontaneous order produced by “the beneficent working of social forces” (1879)

Spencer on voting as a poor instrument for protecting our rights to life, liberty, and property (1879)

Spencer on voting in elections as a screen behind which the wirepullers turn the sovereign people into a puppet (1882)

Sumner and the Conquest of the United States by Spain (1898)

Sumner criticizes the competing vested interests and the role of legislators in the “new democratic State” (1887)

Sumner on the industrial system as an example of social co-operation (c. 1900)

Sumner on the legalization of robbery by the State (1883)

Tocqueville on centralization as the natural form of government for democracies (1835)

Tocqueville on the absence of government in America (1835)

Tocqueville on the form of despotism the government would assume in democratic America (1840)

Tocqueville on the spirit of association (1835)

William Graham Sumner denounced America’s war against Spain and thought that “war, debt, taxation, diplomacy, a grand governmental system, pomp, glory, a big army and navy, lavish expenditures, political jobbery” would result in imperialsm (1898)

William Graham Sumner on how “society” helps the drunkard in the gutter (1883)

William Graham Sumner on the political corruption which is “jobbery” (1884)

William Graham Sumner on the racism which lies behind Imperialism (1898)

William Graham Sumner reminds us never to forget the “Forgotten Man”, the ordinary working man and woman who pays the taxes and suffers under government regulation (1883)