Atlas / Organisations / Whig Constitutionalism
Whig Constitutionalism
1688 settlement · 1688–1832 · Britain · Liberal · Held state power · coding confidence high
Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →
Core principles
Parliamentary supremacy over the crown, rule of law, property rights, limited religious toleration.
Economic model
Commercial agriculture, chartered trading companies, early industrial capitalism, enclosure.
Organisation of powers
King-in-Parliament, independent judiciary, no standing army without consent — but a franchise of a few percent.
Reading note
Shows why 'constitutional' does not mean 'democratic'. Dispersed authority coexisted with an extremely narrow franchise.
Check a claim about Whig Constitutionalism. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.
Open in the atlasThe evidence for every score
All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.
EC · Economic organisation · scored +07
Coded +7: commercial agriculture, chartered companies and enclosure.
- Documented act or statuteOver 5,000 enclosure acts were passed between 1750 and 1830.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored +04
Coded +4: an established church with limited toleration for dissenters.
- Documented act or statuteThe Toleration Act 1689 permitted dissenting worship while excluding dissenters from office.
AU · Organisation of power · scored −05
Coded −5: parliamentary supremacy, independent judiciary, no standing army without consent.
- Documented act or statuteThe Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701 established both.
SC · Scale of decision · scored 00
Coded at zero: King-in-Parliament with strong local gentry administration.
- Documented act or statuteCounties were administered by unpaid justices of the peace drawn from local landowners.
ID · Rule of membership · scored +04
Coded +4: a Protestant constitutional order excluding Catholics from office.
- Documented act or statuteThe Test Acts barred Catholics and dissenters from public office until 1828–29.
CH · Method and tempo · scored −06
Coded −6: settlement by statute after a bloodless change of monarch.
- Programme textThe 1688 revolution was framed as restoration of ancient liberties rather than as innovation.
Where it came from, and what came after
- becameClassical Liberalism
The Whig constitutional settlement developed into nineteenth-century liberalism.
- gave doctrine toAmerican Federalists
The colonial constitutional argument was made in the language of the 1688 settlement.
Nearest organisations by measured distance
Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.
- New Zealand National Party3.2
- Baltic Restorationist Nationalism3.5
- American Federalists4.2
- CDU/CSU4.4
- ACT New Zealand4.4
- Burkean Conservatism4.8
Countries
Cite this page
Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.
Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.