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Transmutation, Inclusion, and Exclusion: Political Arithmetic from Charles II to William III 1
Author(s) -
McCORMICK TED
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2007.00313.x
Subject(s) - politics , irish , context (archaeology) , government (linguistics) , inclusion (mineral) , arithmetic , political science , history , sociology , political economy , mathematics , social science , law , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology
Political arithmetic, generally understood as an early form of political economy, was originally designed by Sir William Petty in the 1670s less as a method of quantitative analysis than as a program of government through the direct manipulation of demographic processes. In the context of the English colonization of Ireland, its goal was “the transmutation of Irish into English”; under the Catholic James II it briefly became a program for the catholicization of the three Stuart kingdoms. Both projects undermined the national and religious categories associated with traditional exclusionist policy and fostered a radical inclusionism. Only after 1688 did Petty's successors decisively rearticulate political arithmetic as a putatively apolitical analytical tool.