checksand balances liberty, metaphorand mechanism（checksand平衡自由,metaphorand机制）.docVIP

davidwootton@britishlibrary.net Liberty, Metaphor, and Mechanism: “checks and balances” and the origins of modern constitutionalism. by David Wootton, Professor of Intellectual History at Queen Mary, University of London “So famous is the political theory of checks and balances, so well known to Americans, that he is a bold man who tries to say new things about it.” Stanley Pargellis (1938) 1. Mechanical Systems. My subject is a topic which has been almost invisible to historians of political theory, the history of the concept of “checks and balances”. The phrase is widely used in con