BRYCE, JAMES (1838–1922)

Educated at Oxford University and called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, James Bryce was Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford from 1870 until 1893. A member of the Liberal party, he served in the House of Commons (1874–1906) and was a member of four cabinets. His writings on American government and politics were influential both in America and abroad and he was even elected president of the American Political Science Association.

Bryce's most noted work on America was The American Commonwealth (1888; last revised, 1910). Rejecting the model of alexis de tocqueville'sDemocracy in America, Bryce set out to describe the American experience without deriving from it any general theories about democracy. A well-educated and widely traveled British politician, Bryce was most impressed by the very constitutional principles Americans frequently take for granted: judicial review, and a fixed, written fundamental law beyond the amending power of the legislature. He thought the diffusion and limitation of governmental power in America were valuable safeguards against despotism, and that bicameralism and separation of powers provided the opportunity for full discussion of important measures; but he saw two great defects: the possibility that deadlock would prevent prompt action and the difficulty of fixing personal responsibility for policies and actions.

One of Bryce's important contributions as an empirical political scientist was his treatment of the political parties. The parties, he observed, constituted "a sort of second and unofficial government" directing the affairs of the legally constituted institutions. The party system counteracted the effects of federalism and separation of powers by linking the interests of legislative and executive officers and by making the results of local elections dependent upon national issues.

Bryce published thirteen other books, including Studies in History and Jurisprudence (1901) and Modern Democracies (1921), which present American government in comparative perspective, and numerous articles. He was the British ambassador to the United States from 1907 until 1913, and upon his retirement was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Bryce.

Dennis J. Mahoney
(1986)

Bibliography

Ions, Edmund S. 1970 James Bryce and American Democracy, 1870–1920. New York: Humanities Press.