Annotation

The relevance of Herbert Spencer’s political and legal doctrine for analyzing the contemporary interaction between public authority and civil society is substantiated. Drawing on key ideas from Spencer’s work “The Individual and the State” regarding the dichotomy of “militaristic” and “industrial” types of social organization, his critique of the expansion of state intervention, which he labeled “new Toryism,” the cumulative effect of legislative errors, and his warning about the risks of democratic procedures degenerating into a new form of despotism (“coming slavery”), the authors draw parallels with contemporary trends in developed countries toward the growth of state regulation, bureaucratization, and the crisis of civil society institutions. It is concluded that Spencer’s political and legal views, affirming the primacy of the natural rights of the individual and the limited role of the state as a “managing committee,” serve as the theoretical basis for constitutionalism as a practical practice designed to establish the limits of public authority, regardless of its source.