Local Self-Government and Centralization: the Characteristics of Each: and Its Practical Tendencies, as Affecting Social, Moral, and Political Welfare and Progress

Local Self-Government And Centralization: The Characteristics Of Each: And Its Practical Tendencies, As Affecting Social, Moral, And Political Welfare And Progress — Joshua Toulmin Smith gives a sweeping, polemical account of the English constitutional order, arguing that true freedom and social progress depend on true Local Self-Government rather than centralized power. The work delineates two fundamental elements of any form of government: Local Self-Government, which entrusts decision-making to the broadest number of informed freemen at the local level, and Centralization, which concentrates power in a few hands. Smith outlines the English Constitution's essential features—how law springs from the people, is administered by them, and is kept in check by a system of Local Self-Government, including folk-motes, juries, and parochial institutions—against the creeping centralization embodied in Crown-appointed commissions, imperial surveys, and top-down statutes. He critiques modern law-making, reform rhetoric, and public policy (notably in health, poor law, taxation, and education), and advocates declaratory Bill reforms, the restoration of ancient safeguards, and a robust, active citizenry. The volume is both a historical defense of liberty and a practical blueprint for reviving local rights and responsibilities as the engine of progress.