Political Thoughts Of Lord Acton: His Theory About Liberty

During the main western investigations of political thought, Acton, a thinker in 19 Century, is not viewed as a nonpareils. Since1940s, some scholars explored new ideological resources from Acton's literatures, which are useful for the new times. With that, the status of Acton in political thought rose increasingly. However, the overseas works about Acton mainly delt with his investigations on history, then they were insufficient for his political thought. What's more, the domestic academia lacked of qualitative achievements as no one had tried to give a meticulous introduction and analysis of Acton's political thought. This article begins with the reading of Acton's works, and makes an introduction of his liberalism, then clarifies his relations with other thinkers, furtherly outlines the agreement and tension between liberty, power and moral in Acton's political thought clearly, so finally makes an interpretation of his thought's value.This article consists of three parts:introduction, the theory and conclusion. The first part briefly introduces the significance of the research on Acton's political thought and the circumstances of domestic and overseas research. The second part penetrates into Acton's political thought. After a brief introduction of Acton's life and ideological background, this part mainly analyzes and concludes the essences of his political thought on the basis of Acton's understanding and pursuit of liberty. As a historian, Acton tended to resort to historical facts, and explored the followings:the reason liberty came, its development,the conditions sustained it, especially the threatening forces to it, from the investigations on the history of liberty. In his opinion, the absolute power, the tyranny of the majority, nationalism and others, all were potential threat to liberty. As for the question:how to protect liberty from those powers, Acton had his solutions, which are listed as followings:fristly, a dispersal of powers.A constitutional unionism is established as the powers are restrained by the check-and-balance system. Secondly, maintenance of the diversities of society by respecting the autonomy of every nation. Finally, a promise for liberty on spiritual order by these two:religious liberty and seperation of the church from the state. At the end of this part, a reflection of the conversion on Acton's later political thought as he changed his attitudes towards the revolutionary. The last part, it makes an overall appraisal and historical status of Acton's liberalism.Although there are still some defections about his thought, his firm faith on liberty and viewpoints on politics and religion are also valuable now, which indeed are inspiring resources for many problems in contemporary society.