Eighteenth-century English ruling power operated as a parasitical racket

Evidence

E. P. Thompson first used the term “brigandage” to describe this phenomenon. In 1965, while describing power in England as it assumed form in the second half of the eighteenth century, he wrote: “It should be seen less as government by an aristocracy … than as a parasitism—a racket, which the King himself could not break into except by becoming the croupier. … Nor was it only a parasitism: being conducted upon so gigantic a scale, from bases in private and public wealth of such magnitude, and commanding influence which reached, by the most direct means, into the army, the navy, the chartered companies, the Church, the Law, it was bound to congeal into something that looks almost like an estate; to surround itself in a cocoon of ideological apologetics; and to nourish a style of life, of conspicuous—indeed, spectacular—consumption which is associated with a true aristocracy.” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1972

Categorization

• DEFINE: Thompson’s ‘brigandage’ concept is the analytical frame Robinson borrows to describe the merchant-capitalist state’s fusion of force and privilege.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1972
• XREF: connects to: Eighteenth-century English state power functioned as aristocratic parasitism — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1972; Eighteenth-century English parties’ shared aristocratic pact blunted genuine conflict — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 309; England’s nobility absorbed bourgeois functions to preserve the ruling system (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Eighteenth-century English state power functioned as aristocratic parasitism #corroborates (0.85) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1972