British Ideas of a Social Parliament

Abstract

The question has been raised from time to time by British thinkers whether there ought not to be some central organ of “society,” some social parliament or even some general system of social parliaments, which might be added to the political parliament of the State, and might stand by its side in some sort of relation, either subordinate or coordinate. Such an organ or parliament would function either as an advisory body (or system of advisory bodies), or as a sort of “relief” legislature, parallel to the regular legislature, to ease the burden of legislation by carrying some part of its heavy traffic. Hitherto, so the arguments run, there has been only a single political mirror, the political legislature, which reflects or “represents” the legal association as such (or in other words, the legally organized State). Ought we not also to have another mirror, or a set of mirrors, reflecting some one great aspect of “society” as such, or even several of its different aspects?The suggestion most commonly made is of a single social mirror, an economic council, or “parliament,” or “sub-parliament,” reflecting the one great aspect of society implied in the adjective “economic.” That suggestion acquired vogue, and even seemed likely to be translated into fact, at the close of the War of 1914–18.