The Research On Constitutional Thought In<the Idea Of A Patriot King>

Although Bolingbroke’s <The Idea of A Patriot King> has a great influence on thepolitical thought and the constitutional ideology in18th and even19th century, domesticresearch works in regard to this specific subject are still rare. This paper intends to analyze theelements which contain the influence to political practice and the relevance of politicalintellectual history in detail. In English-based areas, there was some extraordinary works,such as Issac Kramnick’s and J.G.A Pocock’s works. Issac Kramnick’s conclusion is tooMarxism to believe, which was pointed out by Pocock. However, even Pocock himselfignored some aspects that people seldom paid attention to. This paper mainly bases oncriticizing Issac Kramnick’s notion and serves as a supplement of Pocock’s concept. The pointof this paper is how Bolingbroke’s thoughts and concept evolved：how he had turned his purecountry attitude towards Walpore in1730s’ ideology debate into the mixed mind in <The IdeaofAPatriot King>. The structure of this paper is:Introduction:A general description has been given to the history and intellectualbackground.The situation of the production of <The Idea of A Patriot King> has also beenmentioned.This three will be the key clues of the whole paper’s research.The First Part,the Country Ideology:This is the crucial part.The following two parts arelinked with the country ideology much.Only for the particularities we make this division.Theinterpretation of the country express in this article will be concerned.Then we will investigatethe origin and the influence in both reality and intellectual dimension.The Second Part,the Blue Sea Policy:This part concerns this foreign affair thought whichhave a long history,and do research on its improvement by Bolingbroke.We will observe inboth history and intellectual history ways.The Third Part,Virtue and Grace:The most important intellectual background in the eraof Bolingbroke will be discussed in this part.The contradiction inside Bolingbroke’s mind wasmanifested by the abrupt content in Chapter XIII of <The Idea of A Patriot King>(on king’sprivate manners) which Bolingbroke had made some modifications.So this clue is so crucial to analyze the article.We will deal with it from two great thinker:Shaftesbury and Mandevillewho talked about the subject much in their era.After that we will turn to Bolingbroke.Conclusion:The point of view that my paper has been trying to manifest is:Bolingbrokewas not a writer who had his country principle ran though it all.He found the inherentcontradiction in country ideology when confronted the problem brought by his times.And thiscontradiction cannot be solved by the Machiavellian way of only get back to firstprinciple.The method should be adjusted.And the adjustment is the most brilliant part of <TheIdea ofAPatriot King>.