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Edmund Burke’s Liberalism

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Abstract

This chapter on the political thought of Edmund Burke (1729–1797) will mainly focus on British politics and history in the context and in contrast to the French Revolution of 1789. Writing at the height of the Enlightenment period and alongside great thinkers, such as David Hume (1711–1776), Adam Smith (1723–1790), who also have dedicated chapters in this book, Edmund Burke has been overlooked as a great thinker. His liberalism was much more practical economics than what Smith provided and Burke’s hands-on studies of the functioning of the market was overshadowed by the theoretical analysis of the functioning of the free market economy by the other two thinkers.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Richard Dunn and Alain Anquetil for their corrections and comments on this article.

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Correspondence to Thomas Hoerber .

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Hoerber, T. (2019). Edmund Burke’s Liberalism. In: Hoerber, T., Anquetil, A. (eds) Economic Theory and Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23824-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23824-7_4

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-23823-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-23824-7

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

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