A “Complete Anachronism”? Common Informing, Popular Participation, and Social Philosophy in Eighteenth- and Twentieth-Century England

Abstract

This article analyses the tensions between popular participation and democracy using the example of common informing in eighteenth- and twentieth-century England. Common informing describes the enforcement of penal laws by private citizens from the Middle Ages until its abolition in 1951. The instrument was always controversial, but for different reasons: in the early modern period, the populace often rebelled against the use of the instrument by governments. Going to court for the common good was set against the higher social value of freedom from blackmail, harassment, and denunciation. In the twentieth century, on the other hand, the instrument was regarded by MPs as a “complete anachronism” precisely because it allowed too much political participation. The article thus aims to contrast the debates around common informing in the eighteenth and twentieth centuries with a view to the underlying ideas and contradictions of fundamental rights, popular participation, and democracy.