dk-the-politics-book_compress

RATIONALITY AND ENLIGHTENMENT 99 See also: Plato 34–39 ■ Jean Bodin 88–89 ■ John Locke 104–09 ■ Jean-Jacques Rousseau 118–25 ■ John Rawls 298–301 Left ungoverned, men …in which individuals will terrorize each other in will stop at nothing to a state of nature… ensure their own self-preservation or self-promotion. In the state of nature, the condition of man is a condition of war of everyone against everyone. The frontispiece of Leviathan depicts To avert a descent The sovereign must a ruler, composed of tiny faces, rising into the state of nature, be an absolute ruler up over the land and holding a sword men must enter into with indivisible and and scepter, symbolizing earthly and unlimited power, ecclesiastical powers respectively. a social contract, to prevent factional submitting to the according to self-interest, because authority and protection strife and chaos. acting otherwise would threaten their self-preservation. The title is of a sovereign. suggestive of Hobbes’s views on the state and human nature. If a sovereign fails in their duty, the social Leviathan is the name of a monster contract is broken and individuals may take in the biblical book of Job, and for Hobbes the state is the “great action, leading back to a state of nature. Leviathan… which is but an Artificial Man; though of greater The book was written during only be avoided if men handed over stature and strength than the the English Civil War (1642–51), their arms to a third party—the Natural, for whose protection and and argues against challenges to sovereign—via a social contract defence it was intended; and in royal authority. The state of nature that ensured that all others would which, the Sovereignty is an —the warring of all against do the same. The reason rational Artificial Soul, as giving life and one another—was for Hobbes agents would surrender their motion to the whole body.” The comparable to civil war, and could freedom to an absolute ruler was ❯❯ state is thus a cruel, artificial construct, but is necessary nonetheless for the sake of the protection of its citizens.

100 THOMAS HOBBES that life in the state of nature was power and glory. A state of including John Locke and Jean- so “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, constant fear will ensue, leading Jacques Rousseau, would use the and short” that freedom would to preemptive attacks. concept in their own works on the always be a secondary concern, social contract and ideal forms of an ill-afforded luxury. Hobbes Hobbes sees this state of war government. Locke and Rousseau stated that while people would and chaos as the natural end point did not consider the state of nature have natural rights in such a state of uncontrolled human freedom. In to be a rational construct, but an of nature, the overriding concern order to prevent it, the state needs actual state of affairs. would be to do whatever was to have indivisible power and necessary to secure survival. All authority to control its subjects. A necessary evil actions could be justified—rights This is similar to a description of Enlightenment thinkers referred to would not protect the individual. sovereignty by French jurist Jean the concept of a social contract Bodin, which was also born out between the ruled and the ruler to Rule by social contract of a period of civil war. However, answer questions of the political With no common authority to solve Hobbes did not base authority on legitimacy of various modes of disputes or protect the weak, it the divine right of kings, but on the governance. To rule legitimately, would be up to each individual to idea of a social contract that all there must be either an explicit or decide what he or she needs—and rational people would agree upon. tacit agreement that the sovereign needs to do—to survive. In the will protect his citizens and their state of nature, men are naturally While the concept of man’s state natural rights if they agree to free and independent, with no of nature was deeply influential surrender their individual freedom duties to others. Hobbes assumes among Hobbes’s contemporaries and submit to subordination. that there will always be a scarcity and future political theorists, it of goods, and that people are was often interpreted differently. Hobbes argued that humans equally vulnerable. Some people Hobbes used the state of nature to had two principal choices in life will go into conflict to secure food refer to a hypothetical situation, a —they could either live without and shelter, while others will be sort of rational reconstruction of government (the state of nature) willing to do so in order to obtain how life without order and or with government. For Hobbes, government would be. This differed a social contract bestowing from the way later thinkers, indivisible authority to a sovereign was a necessary evil to avoid the cruel fate that awaited man if a strong power could not keep the destructive impulses of individuals in check. Hobbes believed that, “During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition called war; and such a war, as is of every man, against every man.” However, unlike earlier scholars who had argued for the divine right of kings to rule, Hobbes truly saw the relationship between the ruled and the ruler as contractual. The contract was primarily made Hobbes wrote Leviathan as the English Civil War was waged. His view of the “state of nature” that a sovereign protected against seemed to be borne out by the savagery of the war.

Hobbes saw the state of nature as undesirable, RATIONALITY AND ENLIGHTENMENT 101 stating that the people must willingly subject themselves to a ruler or sovereign in order to protect society. With the social contract, people invest all power in a third In the state of nature, all men party, the sovereign, in exchange for are at war with each other, and live in a constant state of fear safety and the rule of law. of their fellow beings. between the individuals in a collective action problems without governments are still the main society, while the sovereign the need for a strong government. regulators of conflict and providers was an outside, third party. British philosopher Margaret Gilbert of public goods. has suggested that collective Collective action action involves joint commitment Hobbes’s contractual view of Because people are rational, they to a course of action in which, in government authority also affected can see that the state of nature is effect, people act as parts of one the duties of the sovereign. Only so undesirable, and that peace is person with one aim. Nevertheless, long as the sovereign could protect good. However, because each his subjects were they bound by individual has to protect their own The obligation of subjects the social contract. However, interests in the state of nature, a to the sovereign is Hobbes did not encourage popular “collective action problem” arises. revolutions, nor religious influence Although Hobbes did not coin this understood to last as long, on state matters, and he did not term, his dilemma of individuals and no longer, than the favor democratic rule. The main in the state of nature not trusting power lasteth by which aim of government was stability each other to lay down arms is very and peace, not individual freedom. similar to this modern concept, he is able to protect them. where a problem exists that can Thomas Hobbes Pragmatic politics only be overcome if individuals— Hobbes’s views on the social all of whom stand to gain from the contract did legitimize changes in successful outcome—act collectively. government. When the English Hobbes’s solution was radical: king, Charles I, was dethroned in invest all power in a third party— 1649 by Oliver Cromwell, according the sovereign. Contemporary to Hobbes’s thinking the social scholars have identified many ways contract was held intact, since one in which individuals overcome ruler was merely replaced with another. In other words, Hobbes ❯❯

102 THOMAS HOBBES was an antidemocrat and an Oliver Cromwell led the anti-Royalist against absolutism—responded by absolutist, but also a pragmatist. forces that deposed King Charles I challenging his portrayal of human Although he did not take a in 1649. Hobbes believed the social beings as hungry for power and decisive stance on which mode contract was still intact, since rule strife. Jean-Jacques Rousseau saw of government was best, he had passed unbroken to Parliament. the life of man in the state of nature clearly preferred Charles I’s in a romantic light, as a life of monarchy as a good, stable form arguing for individual freedoms innocence and simplicity, in of government. However, he also and rights had not grasped that contrast to life in modern society, regarded parliamentary sovereignty the basic security that civilized life which was dishonest. Therefore, as a suitable form of government, took for granted would only endure one should not try to escape from as long as the legislative assembly as long as strong, centralized rule the state of nature, rather it should contained an odd number of existed. Political obedience was be re-created as best as possible in members to prevent a situation needed to keep the peace. Citizens the mode of government. Rousseau of political stalemate. had a right to defend themselves if therefore advocated direct their lives were threatened, but in democracy in small communities. The logic behind Hobbes’s all other questions the government While Hobbes lived his life version of the social contract was was to be obeyed to prevent with the English Civil War as a questioned by many scholars. factional strife or political paralysis. reference point, Rousseau lived John Locke provided a sarcastic in the tranquil city of Geneva, critique by questioning why one Against a state of nature Switzerland. It is telling how their would believe that “Men are so Hobbes delivered a strong different backgrounds shaped their foolish that they take care to avoid argument for absolutism based political theories. Unlike Hobbes, what Mischiefs may be done to on his deliberations on the nature Rousseau regarded the state of them by Pole-cats, or Foxes, but of man. His opponents—arguing nature as a historical description of are content, nay think it Safety, to be devoured by Lions.” For The Social Contract Locke, authoritarian rule is just as dangerous as civil disorder— We, the people, agree he preferred the state of nature to to obey the law and to subordination. Hobbes believed, respect the authority however, that only governments with indivisible and unlimited of the sovereign, power would prevent the otherwise whose power is inevitable disintegration of society into civil war. For Hobbes, anyone indivisible and unlimited.

RATIONALITY AND ENLIGHTENMENT 103 Nothing is so gentle as man in and refers to the laws of nature that To this war of every his primitive state, when govern this condition. In contrast to man against every man… Hobbes, he states that even in the nothing can be unjust… placed by nature at an equal state of nature no man has the right where there is no common distance from the stupidity to harm another. Hume adds to the debate by stating that human power, there is no law, of brutes and the fatal beings are naturally social, and that where no law, no injustice. enlightenment of civil man. the savage condition described by Jean-Jacques Rousseau Hobbes is therefore improbable. Thomas Hobbes man in a pre-social state of nature. The Hobbes method While most scholars today would Political theorists have since Today, scholars continue to use consider Hobbes’s view of the vacillated between the extremes Hobbes’s method and the concept human condition to be pessimistic, of Hobbes and Rousseau, viewing of a state of nature to argue for he maintains a significant influence the condition of man either as a and against different political on political thought. The realist condition of war or as people living systems. John Rawls used tradition in international relations, in accordance with nature. Hobbes’s notion of what made which stresses the study of power, a stable society when formulating departs from Hobbes’s premise that Two other influential what rational people would be the condition of man is a condition philosophers—Locke and Scottish able to agree upon. In A Theory of war. Nevertheless, the anarchical philosopher David Hume—also of Justice (1971), Rawls argues condition that Hobbes described criticized Hobbes. Locke writes that people would choose a in the state of nature is also taken on the state of nature in his two condition where everyone had to be true for the international treatises of government (1690), some basic rights and economic system, where states are the safeguards if forced to choose main actors. Realist views of the under a “veil of ignorance,” not international system still dominate knowing whether they would today, despite the end of the Cold have a privileged position in this War. The main difference from imagined society. Hobbes did not, Hobbes’s theory is that, at the however, theorize on the ideal international level, it is not possible society, but on the necessity of to rely on the Leviathan of the state strong government. to subdue destructive pursuits of power and self-interest. States cannot trust each other, and are therefore doomed to arms races and wars. ■ The Triumph of Death (1562) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder depicts anarchy breaking out as Death comes to rich and poor alike. Hobbes saw the state of nature as similarly anarchic and brutal.

THE END OF LAW IS TO PRESERVE AND ENLARGE FREEDOM JOHN LOCKE (1632–1704)



106 JOHN LOCKE A n important question in by a government is that they political theory concerns expect the government to regulate IN CONTEXT the role of government and disagreements and conflicts in the functions it should perform. a neutral manner. Following IDEOLOGY Equally important is the question this logic, Locke was also able Liberalism of what gives the government to describe the characteristics a right to govern, and where the of an illegitimate government. FOCUS boundaries of government authority It followed that a government that The rule of law should be. Some medieval scholars did not respect and protect people’s argued that kings had a right to natural rights—or unnecessarily BEFORE rule that had been bestowed upon constrained their liberty—was not 1642 A series of conflicts them by God, while others legitimate. Locke was therefore known as the English Civil proclaimed that the nobility had opposed to absolutist rule. Unlike War breaks out, due to a birthright to rule. Enlightenment his contemporary Thomas Hobbes, concerns that Charles I thinkers started to challenge these who believed that an absolute would attempt to introduce doctrines. But if the power to rule sovereign was required to save absolutism in England. was not to be granted by divine people from a brutal “state of will or by birth, other sources of nature,” Locke maintained that 1661 Louis XIV begins his legitimacy had to be found. the powers and functions of personal rule of France, and government had to be limited. embodies absolutism in the English philosopher John Locke phrase “L’état, c’est moi,” was the first to articulate the liberal The centrality of laws saying that he is the state. principles of government: namely Much of Locke’s writing on political that the purpose of government philosophy centered on rights and AFTER was to preserve its citizens’ rights laws. He defined political power 1689 The English Bill of to freedom, life, and property, to as “a Right of making Laws with Rights secures the rights of pursue the public good; and to Penalties of Death,” He contended Parliament and elections free punish people who violated the that one of the primary reasons of royal interference. rights of others. Lawmaking was why people would voluntarily leave therefore the supreme function the lawless state of nature was that 18th century Popular of government. For Locke, one of no independent judges existed in revolutions in France the main reasons people would such a situation. It was preferable and America lead to the be willing to enter into a social to grant government a monopoly on establishment of republics contract and submit to being ruled based on liberalist principles. John Locke lived in—and foundation for the Glorious John Locke shaped—one of the most Revolution of 1688, which transformative centuries in transferred the balance English history. A series of civil of power permanently from the wars pitted Protestants, king to Parliament. He promoted Anglicans, and Catholics against the idea that people are not born each other, and power vacillated with innate ideas, but with a between the king and the mind like a blank slate—a very Parliament. Locke was born in modern way of viewing the self. 1632 close to Bristol, England. He lived in exile in France and Key works Holland for large periods of time due to suspicions that he was 1689 Two Treatises of Government involved in an assassination plot 1689 A Letter Concerning against King Charles II. His book Toleration Two Treatises of Government 1690 An Essay Concerning Human provided the intellectual Understanding

RATIONALITY AND ENLIGHTENMENT 107 See also: Thomas Hobbes 96–103 ■ Montesquieu 110–11 ■ Jean-Jacques Rousseau 118–25 ■ Thomas Jefferson 140–41 ■ Robert Nozick 326–27 Humans are rational, They join political society The end of law should independent agents to be protected by be to preserve and the rule of law. enlarge freedom. with natural rights. violence and sentencing to ensure live in freedom is not to live without disputes in a neutral way. Locke fair rule of law. Moreover, for Locke, laws in the state of nature. Locke writes that “men living according a legitimate government upholds points out that “freedom is not, as to reason, without a common the principle of separation of the we are told, liberty for every man superior on Earth to judge legislative and executive powers. to do what he lists (for who could between them, is properly The legislative power is superior be free when every other man’s the state of nature.” to the executive—the former humor might domineer over him?), has supreme power to establish but a liberty to dispose, and order Unlike Hobbes, Locke does general rules in the affairs of as he lists, his person, actions, not equate the state of nature with government, while the latter possessions, and his whole war. A state of war is a situation is only responsible for enforcing property, within the allowance in which people do not uphold the law in specific cases. of those laws.” In other words, natural law, or the law of reason laws can not only preserve, but as Locke calls it. Where Hobbes One reason for the centrality also enable liberty to be exercised. would see human beings acting of laws in Locke’s writings is that Without laws, our freedom would be as “power maximizers,” mainly laws protect liberty. The purpose of limited by an anarchical, uncertain concerned with self-preservation, law is not to abolish or restrain, but state of nature, and in practice Locke finds that people can act to preserve and enlarge freedom. there may be no freedom at all. according to reason and with In political society, Locke believes tolerance in the state of nature. that “where there is no law there is Man’s initial condition Conflicts are therefore not no freedom.” Laws, therefore, both Locke says that laws should be necessarily common in a state constrain and enable freedom. To designed—and enforced—with of nature. However, when ❯❯ man’s initial condition and nature In all the states of created in mind. Like most social contract beings capable of law, theorists, he considers men to where there is no law, be equal, free, and independent. there is no freedom. According to Locke, the state of John Locke nature is a situation in which people coexist, often in relative harmony, but there is no legitimate political power or judge to settle Opposed to absolutist rule, Locke as a child had witnessed the execution of King Charles I in 1649 for being “a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good of this nation.”

108 JOHN LOCKE The Role Of Government Governments must craft …that protect the rights …and enforce them with good laws… of the people… the public good in mind. population density increases, the legitimate role of government, powerful figure would limit resources become scarce, and based on an understanding of individual freedom unnecessarily. the introduction of money leads the human state of nature. For Locke, total subordination to economic inequality, conflicts was dangerous. He wrote: “I have increase, and human society Locke agrees with Hobbes that reason to conclude that he who begins to need laws, regulators, a legitimate government is based would get me into his power and judges to settle disputes in on a social contract between without my consent would use an objective manner. individuals in a society. The me as he pleased when he got me problem with the state of nature there, and destroy me too when he The purpose of government is that there are no judges or police had a fancy to it; for nobody can The question of legitimacy was to enforce the law. People are desire to have me in his absolute at the heart of Locke’s political willing to enter civil society in power unless it be to compel me thinking. Following the example order for government to take up this by force to that which is against of Hobbes, he sought to deduce role. This is, therefore, a legitimate the right of my freedom, i.e., make role for government. Another me a slave.” important aspect of legitimate government is rule by consent Rather, Locke favors a limited of the people. For Locke, this did role for government. Government not have to mean democracy—a should protect people’s private majority of people could reasonably property, keep the peace, secure decide that a monarch, aristocracy, public commodities for the whole or a democratic assembly should people, and as far as possible, rule. The important point was protect citizens against foreign that the people granted the right invasions. For Locke, “This is the to rule, and were entitled to take original, this is the use, and these back this privilege. are the bounds of the legislative (which is the supreme) power Locke argued against a strong, in every commonwealth.” The absolutist sovereign—as advocated purpose of government is to by Thomas Hobbes—since such a do what is missing in the state of nature to ensure people’s The English Bill of Rights, ratified freedom and prosperity. There is by King William III in 1689, established no need to enslave people under limits on the king’s power, conforming absolute rule. The primary function with Locke’s contention that a monarch of government is to craft good laws only rules by the consent of the people.

RATIONALITY AND ENLIGHTENMENT 109 to protect people’s rights, and France and North America near A Bill of Rights is to enforce those laws with the the end of the 18th century were what the people are public good in mind. founded on liberal ideas. In fact, entitled to against every Thomas Jefferson, one of the government, and what no The right to revolt architects of the American just government should refuse, Locke’s distinction between Constitution and the Declaration or rest on inference. legitimate and illegitimate of Independence, revered Locke, Thomas Jefferson governments also carries with and used many of his phrases in it the idea that opposition to the founding documents. The illegitimate rule is acceptable. emphasis on protection of “life, Locke describes a range of liberty, or property” found in the scenarios in which people would Bill of Rights in the Constitution, have a right to revolt in order to and the inalienable rights to take back the power they had “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit given the government. For example, of Happiness” in the Declaration people can legitimately rebel if: can all be traced directly back elected representatives of the to John Locke’s philosophy a people are prevented from century earlier. ■ assembly; foreign powers are bestowed with authority over people; the election system or procedures are changed without public consent; the rule of law is not upheld; or the government seeks to deprive people of their rights. Locke regarded illegitimate rule as tantamount to slavery. He even went as far as to condone regicide—the execution of a monarch—in circumstances where the monarch has broken the social contract with his people. As the son of Puritans who had supported the Parliamentarian cause in the English Civil War, this was no mere theoretical concern—Locke’s writing gives a clear justification for the execution of Charles I. Locke’s legacy The political philosophy of John Locke has, since his time, become known as “liberalism”—the belief in the principles of liberty and equality. The revolutions in For a government to be legitimate, according to Locke, assemblies of elected representatives of the people, such as the House of Commons, must be allowed to meet and debate.

110 WHEN LEGISLATIVE AND EXECUTIVE POWERS ARE UNITED IN THE SAME BODY, THERE CAN BE NO LIBERTY MONTESQUIEU (1689–1755) IN CONTEXT D uring the 18th-century philosophers began to investigate Age of Enlightenment, the power of the monarchy, clergy, IDEOLOGY the traditional authority and aristocracy. Foremost among Constitutional politics of the Church was undermined by these were Voltaire, Jean-Jacques scientific discoveries, and the idea Rousseau, and Montesquieu. FOCUS of monarchs ruling by divine right Separation of powers was called into question. In Europe, Rousseau argued for power to particularly France, many political be shifted from the monarchy to the BEFORE people, and Voltaire for a separation 509 BCE After the overthrow of King Lucius Tarquinius A government’s administrative Superbus, the Roman Republic duties should be split is founded, in which a tripartite system of government evolves. between three powers… 1689 After the “Glorious …an executive …a legislative …a judicial Revolution” in England, a branch, branch, branch, constitutional monarchy is established. responsible for responsible for responsible enforcing the passing and for interpreting AFTER amending the 1787 The Constitution of laws of laws of a state. the laws of the United States is adopted a state. a state. in Philadelphia. Since these powers are separate from and dependent on 1789–99 During the French one another, the influence of any one power cannot Revolution, a secular democratic exceed that of the other two. republic replaces rule by the monarchy and the church. 1856 Alexis de Tocqueville publishes The Old Regime and the Revolution, an analysis of the fall of the French monarchy.

RATIONALITY AND ENLIGHTENMENT 111 See also: Cicero 49 ■ Jean-Jacques Rousseau 118–25 ■ Thomas Jefferson 140–41 ■ James Madison 150–53 ■ Alexis de Tocqueville 170–71 ■ Henry David Thoreau 186–87 ■ Noam Chomsky 314–15 The deterioration of unless regulated by a constitution any abuse of power by the others. a government begins that prevented it. At the heart of his Although Montesquieu’s ideas almost always by the argument was the division of the were inevitably met with hostility decay of its principles. administrative power of a state by the authorities in France, his into three distinct categories: principle of the separation of powers Montesquieu the executive (responsible for the was hugely influential, especially administration and enforcement of in the US, where it became a of church and state. Montesquieu laws), the legislative (responsible cornerstone of the Constitution. was less concerned with who took for the passing, repealing, and Following the French Revolution, the reins of government; of more amending of laws), and the judicial it also formed a model for the new importance to him was the (responsible for interpreting republic, and as democracies were existence of a constitution that and applying the laws). established worldwide over the would protect against despotism. next century, some form of the This could be achieved, he Separation of powers tripartite system was generally argued, by a separation of This distinction between the included in their constitutions. ■ the powers of government. different branches of governmental power, sometimes known as the The United States Congress is the Montesquieu argued that trias politica, was not new—the legislative branch of the federal despotism was the single greatest ancient Greeks and Romans had government; its powers are separate threat to the liberty of the citizens, recognized a similar division. Where and distinct from those of the President and both monarchies and republics Montesquieu was innovative was in (executive branch) and the Judiciary. risked degeneration into despotism his advocacy of separate bodies to exercise these powers. This would create a balance, ensuring stable government with minimal risk of decline into despotism. The separation of powers ensured that no one administrative body could become all-powerful, since each would be able to restrict Montesquieu Montesquieu was born Charles- 1731, he worked on his history Louis de Secondat near Bordeaux of the Roman empire as well as in France, and inherited the title his masterwork, The Spirit of of Baron de Montesquieu upon the Laws, which was published the death of his uncle in 1716. anonymously in 1748. Praised He studied law at Bordeaux, elsewhere in Europe, it had a but his marriage in 1715 brought hostile reception in France. him a substantial dowry, which, Montesquieu died of a fever along with his inheritance, in Paris in 1755. allowed him to concentrate on his literary career, starting Key works with the satirical Persian Letters. 1721 Persian Letters Montesquieu was elected to 1734 Considerations on the the Paris Academy in 1728, and Causes of the Greatness of began a series of travels to Italy, the Romans and Their Decline Hungary, Turkey, and England. 1748 The Spirit of the Laws After his return to Bordeaux in

112 INDEPENDENT ENTREPRENEURS MAKE GOOD CITIZENS BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706–1790) IN CONTEXT The health of a nation depends on the virtue of its citizens. IDEOLOGY Liberalism Aristocrats are Independent conservative and entrepreneurs are useful, FOCUS industrious, and thrifty. Entrepreneurial citizens unproductive. BEFORE Independent entrepreneurs 1760 Britain seizes France’s make good citizens. North American colonies, raising the stakes in its land T he period before and after republican principles. They opposed acquisition in the New World. the independence of the centralized, absolute authority and United States from British aristocratic privileges. Instead, 1776 Thirteen colonies declare rule was revolutionary intellectually pluralist ideals, protection of their independence from as much as politically. Labeled the individual rights, and universal Britain to become the United American Enlightenment, its citizenship were the cornerstones. States of America. leading thinkers were inspired by The view of human nature that European Enlightenment writers underpinned this new system AFTER such as John Locke, Edmund of government stemmed from 1879 Thomas Paine’s Burke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, classical republicanism, which saw Declaration of the Rights of Voltaire, and Montesquieu. When civic virtue as the foundation for a Man and of the Citizen is designing their new system of good society. In the view of one of published in France. government, the Founding Fathers the Founding Fathers, Benjamin of the new state favored liberal and Franklin, individual entrepreneurs 1868 Black people are granted citizenship in the United States following the ratification of the 14th amendment to the Constitution. 1919 Women are granted the vote in the US through the 19th amendment.

RATIONALITY AND ENLIGHTENMENT 113 See also: John Locke 104–09 ■ Montesquieu 110–11 ■ Edmund Burke 130–33 ■ Thomas Paine 134–39 ■ Thomas Jefferson 140–41 made good, virtuous citizens. In this, Franklin articulated the future capitalist spirit of the United States. Entrepreneurial virtue Lose no time; Benjamin Franklin While liberals tend to focus on be always employ’d in individuals’ rights—for example, something useful; cut off Benjamin Franklin was the to life and property—classical all unnecessary actions. son of a candle- and republicans place greater emphasis Benjamin Franklin soapmaker who rose to on the individual’s duties to the become a statesman, scientist, commonwealth as a citizen, and social class such as the aristocracy. and inventor. Born in 1706 in the virtues that citizens need to In common with many of Europe’s Boston, he played a leading fulfill this role. The concept of Enlightenment thinkers, Franklin role in the long process that virtue was important to earlier believed that merchants and brought the United States classical republicans, such as scientists were the real driving into being. As a statesman, Italian Niccolò Machiavelli, in forces of society, but he also placed Franklin opposed the British describing the characteristics of more emphasis on the importance Stamp Act, was the US rulers. But the virtues of individual of personal traits and individual ambassador in London and citizens were rarely discussed. responsibilities. He regarded Paris, and is considered one of entrepreneurship to be a personal the most important Founding Franklin discusses virtue at trait that had important virtue. Fathers of the United States. an individual level. In his view, a prosperous nation is built on the As a scientist, Franklin is virtues of individual, hard-working, best known for his experiments and productive citizens, not on the with electricity. Among his characteristics of the ruler or a many inventions are the lightning rod, the open stove, The entrepreneurial spirit and Promoting the public good bifocal glasses, and the philanthropy shown by Bill Gates, Entrepreneurship is today widely flexible urinary catheter. As founder of Microsoft—the pioneering associated with the capitalist an entrepreneur, he was a manufacturer of PCs—are central to system. For example, to the successful newspaper editor, Franklin’s notion of good citizenship. Austrian economist Joseph printer, and author of popular Schumpeter, entrepreneurship was literature. Although he never central to the process of “creative occupied the highest office in destruction” that shapes the the United States, few other capitalist system. However, Americans have had a more Franklin’s view of entrepreneurs lasting influence on the differed markedly from the modern country’s political landscape. image of a capitalist businessman. Firstly, he saw entrepreneurship Key works as a virtue only when it promoted the public good, via philanthropy, 1733 Poor Richard’s Almanack for example. Secondly, he saw 1787 United States an important role for voluntary Constitution organizations in order to 1790 Autobiography temper individualism. ■

REVOLUT THOUGHT 1770–1848

IONARY S

116 INTRODUCTION In Common Sense, Immanuel Kant’s Edmund Burke The Irish Rebellion, Thomas Paine demands Critique of Practical denounces the violence inspired by the French freedom from British Reason argues for moral rule for the American and political judgments to of the revolution in and American be framed by reason. Reflections on the revolutions, fails colonies. to overthrow Revolution in France. British rule. 1776 1788 1790 1798 1783 1789 1792 1804 The American colonies The Bastille, a prison France is Haiti gains are victorious in the War in Paris, is stormed proclaimed a independence from of Independence against by a crowd, sparking republic by the France, becoming the the French Revolution. newly established first black republic the British empire. National Convention. in the Americas. T he 17th century had seen intellectual movement that aimed Enlightenment sources. Far from immense progress in the to clear away the centuries of being a movement of the elite, understanding of the scholasticism from human the Enlightenment’s emphasis on natural world. New approaches knowledge and reform society rationality and progress made it, to the problems presented by using reason, rather than faith. Rousseau believed, a movement discoveries in science in turn for the masses. helped inform different ways to Sovereignty of the people approach social problems. English A Swiss-born French philosopher The decades after Rousseau’s philosopher Thomas Hobbes had named Jean-Jacques Rousseau death in 1778 were marked by introduced the notion of the “social used the social contract to offer a conflicts over these new views contract,” based on his ideas of radical new view of how politics of society. Enlightenment ideals how rational (but selfish) could function in the modern age. began to shape events in the latter individuals would function in the While many Enlightenment part of the 18th century, most state of nature, while another thinkers—French philosopher spectacularly in the American and Englishman, John Locke, had Voltaire among them—encouraged French revolutions of the 1770s and provided a rational argument enlightened despots to rule wisely 1780s. For example, Thomas Paine’s for private property. These and were against the rule of the simple argument for independence, early, enlightened efforts mob, Rousseau argued that true a republic, and democracy in to rationalize social structure sovereignty resided only with the Common Sense popularized would, however, be subverted people. He was not the first to offer the demands of the American by writers also claiming to work a critique of existing authority, revolutionaries, and the pamphlet in the tradition known as the but he was the first to do so within became an instant bestseller. In Enlightenment. This was a great a framework of thought drawn from France, the most radical faction of the revolution, the Jacobins,

REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS 117 After nearly 1,000 years French emperor The Greek War for The Upper Canada of existence, the Holy Napoleon Independence against rebellion, led by Ottoman rule begins, Roman empire is Bonaparte is republicans, fails to dissolved by the Treaty defeated by a sparking further overthrow British British-led coalition at nationalist revolts rule in Canada. of Pressburg. the Battle of Waterloo. in the Balkans. 1806 1815 1821 1837 1810 1820 1831 1839 Wars of independence Georg Hegel’s Elements The Merthyr Uprising of A People’s Charter for begin in Latin of the Philosophy of mine workers in South democratic reform is America, led by Right argues that Wales is suppressed; the launched in Britain, freedom derives from red flag as a symbol of Venezuelan army officer complex social revolution is flown for including secret Simón Bolívar. arrangements. ballots and universal the first time. adult male suffrage. idolized Rousseau, and arranged sophisticated style of conservative freedoms that respected property for his reburial in the Panthéon in thought developed, exemplified and identified the limits of Paris as a national hero, opposite by the Irish philosopher and government. Certain rights had the equally iconic Voltaire. politician Edmund Burke. been won in the past, but the need for government to balance Belief that society could be Burke used the language of competing claims would, Bentham reconstructed in a rational fashion, freedom and rights to justify the held, limit any great extension of even through a radical break with rule of the wisest, and believed that those rights in the future. the past, was gaining ground at the it was more important to maintain beginning of the 19th century. By social stability than to attempt A more ambiguous variant of the 1850s, revolutions had shaken radical reform. Healthy societies, the same conclusions was provided Europe, and national liberation Burke believed, could only develop by German philosopher Georg movements had been successful over many generations. The bloody Hegel who, starting from an across Latin America. British writer Reign of Terror that followed the admiration for the French Revolution, Mary Wollstonecraft helped to revolution in France demonstrated argued for the need to understand expand the argument that the for Burke the failings of radicalism. freedom as possible only in a fully ideals of Enlightened freedom developed civil society, and ended should not exclude half of humanity, Meanwhile, a distinctive style his life a supporter of the autocratic and that women’s rights were an of liberal argument in defense of Prussian state. His complex integral part of a just society. rights also began to develop. arguments provided a framework Proceeding on the basis of simple with which the next generation New conservatism claims about humanity’s desire for of thinkers would attempt to In reaction to these and other happiness, English philosopher understand the failings of the radical thinkers, a new and more Jeremy Bentham constructed a post-revolutionary world. ■ justification for limited democratic

TO RENOUNCE LIBERTY IS TO RENOUNCE BEING A MAN JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712–1778)



120 JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU IN CONTEXT Humans existed in a state of nature IDEOLOGY Republicanism before society. FOCUS They were free and …but they swapped The general will happy, close this liberty for a social to animals… BEFORE contract and laws. 1513 Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince offers a modern We cannot return to To renounce form of politics in which a a state of nature… liberty is to renounce ruler’s morality and the concerns of state are being a man. strictly separate. …but we can write a 1651 Thomas Hobbes’s new social contract, Leviathan argues for the foundation of the state on the promoting freedom basis of the social contract. through law. AFTER 1789 The Jacobin Club begins meeting in Paris. Its extremist members attempt to apply Rousseau’s principles to revolutionary politics. 1791 In Britain, Edmund Burke blames Rousseau for the “excesses” of the French Revolution. F or centuries in Western ways in which society was Thomas Hobbes, writing his Europe, a certain style of considered. It took the upheavals Leviathan during the English Civil thinking about human associated with the development War of the mid-17th century, used affairs prevailed. Under the sway of capitalism and urban life to the scientific method of deduction, of the Catholic Church, the writings begin to tear this approach apart. rather than the reading of ancient of ancient Greece and Rome texts, to argue for the necessity of had been steadily studied and Rethinking the status quo a strong state to preserve security rehabilitated, with outstanding In the 16th century, Niccolò among the people. intellectuals such as Augustine Machiavelli, in a radical departure of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas with the past, had turned the However, it was Jean-Jacques rediscovering ancient thinkers. scholastic tradition on its head in Rousseau, an idiosyncratic Swiss A scholastic approach, treating The Prince, drawing on ancient exile from Geneva whose personal history and society as essentially examples not to act as a guide to a life scandalized polite society, unchanging and the higher moral life, but to demonstrate how who proposed the most radical purpose of morality as fixed by an effective statecraft or politics break with the past. Rousseau’s God, had come to dominate the could be cynically performed. autobiographical Confessions, published after his death, reveal

REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS 121 See also: Ibn Khaldun 72–73 ■ Niccolò Machiavelli 74–81 ■ Hugo Grotius 94–95 ■ Thomas Hobbes 96–103 ■ Edmund Burke 130–33 ■ Hannah Arendt 282–83 You are undone if you once particular, had a cyclical view of This new theory begged an obvious forget that the fruits of the political change in which good or question: If human society was Earth belong to us all, and virtuous modes of government— open to political change, why, then the Earth itself to nobody. whether monarchy, democracy, or was it so obviously imperfect? Jean-Jacques Rousseau aristocracy—would degenerate into various forms of tyranny before the On property and inequality that it was during his time in cycle was renewed again. Society, Rousseau provided, again, an the Italian island-port of Venice— as such, did not change, merely exceptional answer, and one that while working as an underpaid its form of government. scandalized his fellow philosophers. ambassadorial secretary—that As his starting point, he asked that he decided “everything depends Rousseau disagreed. If, as he we consider humans without entirely on politics.” People were argued, society could be shaped by society. Thomas Hobbes had argued not inherently evil, but could its political institutions, there was such people would be savages, living become so under evil governments. —in theory—no limit to the ability lives that were “poor, nasty, brutish, The virtues he saw in Geneva, and of political action to reshape society and short,” but Rousseau asserted the vices in Venice—in particular, for the better. quite the opposite. Human beings the sad decline of the city-state free from society were well-disposed, from its glorious past—could be This assertion marked Rousseau happy creatures, content in their traced not to human character, as a distinctively modern thinker. state of nature. Only two principles but to human institutions. Nobody before Rousseau had guided them: the first, a natural self- systematically thought of society love and desire for self-preservation; as something distinct from its the second, a compassion for political institutions, as an entity their fellow human beings. The that was itself capable of being combination of the two ensured studied and acted upon. Rousseau that humanity reproduced itself, was the first, even among the generation after generation, in a philosophers of the Enlightenment, state close to that of other animals. ❯❯ to reason in terms of social relations among people. Society shaped by politics In his Discourse on Inequality of 1754, Rousseau broke with previous political philosophy. The ancient Greeks and others writing on society—including Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century—viewed political processes as subject to their own laws, working with an unchanging human nature. The Greeks, in The corruption Rousseau found in Venice exemplified for him the way in which bad government causes people to be bad. He contrasted this with the propriety of his home town, Geneva.

122 JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU The advent of private property was responsible for all of the divisions and inequalities When private property that exist within society, according to Rousseau. first appeared in society, it created an immediate division People who possessed between those who had property greater property began to judge themselves and those who did not. superior to those who had less. This happy condition was, however, between those of master and slave, in society as the result of a social brutally brought to a close by the and then in the separation of contract. People could choose creation of civil society and, in families. On the foundation of these to forfeit their own rights to a particular, the development of new divisions, private property government, handing over their full private property. The arrival then provided the mechanism by liberty to a sovereign in return for of private property imposed an which a natural self-love turned the king—in Hobbes’s account— immediate inequality on humanity into destructive love of self, now providing security and protection. that did not previously exist— driven by jealousy and pride, and Hobbes argued that life without a between those who possessed capable of turning against other sovereign pushed humanity back property, and those who did not. By human beings. It became possible to a vile state of nature. By handing instituting this inequality, private to possess, and acquire, and to over a degree of liberty—in property provided the foundations judge oneself against others on the particular, liberty to use force— of further divisions in society— basis of this material wealth. Civil and swearing obedience, a people society was the result of division could guarantee peace, since the The mere impulse of and conflict working against a sovereign could end disputes and appetite is slavery, natural harmony. enforce punishments. while obedience to the law we prescribe The loss of liberty Rousseau rejected this. It was to ourselves is liberty. Rousseau built on this argument in impossible, he thought, for any Jean-Jacques Rousseau The Social Contract, published in person or persons to hand over their 1762. “Man was born free, and he liberty without also handing over is everywhere in chains,” he wrote. their humanity and therefore While his earlier writings had been destroying morality. A sovereign resolutely bleak in their opposition could not hold absolute authority, to conventional society, The Social since it was impossible for a free Contract sought to provide the man to enslave himself. Establishing positive foundations for politics. a ruler superior to the rest of society Like Hobbes and Hugo Grotius transformed humanity’s natural before him, Rousseau saw the equality into a permanent, political emergence of a sovereign power inequality. For Rousseau, the social contract envisioned by Hobbes was

REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS 123 a form of hoax by the rich against civil society were burdens on the law. Freedom could be won the poor—there was no other way individuals, depriving them of a within the state, rather than that the poor would agree to a natural freedom. But they could be against it. To achieve this, the state of affairs in which the social changed into positive extensions of whole people must become contract preserved inequality. our freedom, if political institutions sovereign. A legitimate state is one and society were organized that offers greater freedom than is The societies that existed, then, effectively. The social contract, obtainable in the raw state of were not formed in the state of instead of being a pact written in nature. To secure that positive nature, deriving their legitimacy fear of our evil natures, could be a freedom, a people must also be from improvement over that time. contract written in the hope of equal. In Rousseau’s new world, Rather, Rousseau argued, they were improving ourselves. The state of liberty and equality march formed after we had left the state of nature might have been free, but it together, rather than in opposition. nature, and property rights—with meant people had no greater ideals the resultant inequalities—had than that of their animal appetites. Popular sovereignty been established. Once property More sophisticated desires could In The Social Contract, Rousseau rights were in place, conflicts only appear outside the state of laid down, in outline, many of the would ensue over the distribution nature, in civil society. To achieve claims that would underlie the of those rights. It was civil society this, a new kind of social contract development of the left in politics and property that led to war, with would be written. over subsequent centuries: a belief the state as the agency through that freedom and equality were which war could be pursued. Where Hobbes saw law only as partners, not enemies; a belief in a restraint, and freedom existing the ability of law and the state to Revising the social contract only in the absence of law, improve society; and a belief in What Rousseau offered in The Rousseau argued that laws the people as a sovereign entity, Social Contract was the possibility could become an extension of from which the state gained of this dire situation transforming our freedom, provided that those its legitimacy. Despite the ❯❯ into its opposite. The state and subject to the law also prescribed Hobbes and Rousseau compared In the state of nature... The social contract... Freedom... Hobbes …is necessary to …can exist only in the guarantee peace and avoid absence of law. …life is nasty, brutish, and short. the state of nature. Rousseau …preserves inequalities …can be won within the and destroys a bounds of law. …people are contented, happy creatures. person’s humanity.

124 JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU Rousseau was not against property, republic of small-scale farmers. the way for the corruption of the as long as it was distributed fairly. He Nonetheless, Rousseau’s ideas sovereign people. It was this considered a small, agrarian republic in were, for the time, dramatically corruption that so marked the world which all citizens were farmers to be radical. By investing the whole of Rousseau’s time, in his view. an ideal form of state. people with sovereignty, and by Instead of acting as a collective, identifying sovereignty with sovereign body, the people were vehemence of his attack on private equality, he offered a challenge consumed by the pursuit of private property, Rousseau was not a to an entire existing tradition of interests. In place of the freedom of socialist. He believed that the total Western political thought. popular sovereignty, society had abolition of private property would pushed people into separate, pitch liberty and equality into A new contract private spheres of endeavor, conflict, while a moderately fair Rousseau did not equate this whether in the arts, science, or distribution of property could idea of popular sovereignty with literature, or in the division of enhance freedom. Indeed, he later democracy as such, fearing that a labor. This numbed people into went on to argue for an agrarian directly democratic government, habitual deference, and instilled requiring all citizens to participate, a spirit of passivity. was uniquely prone to corruption and civil war. Instead, he envisioned To ensure the government was sovereignty being invested in an authentic expression of the popular assemblies capable of popular, general will, Rousseau delegating the tasks of government believed that participation in its —via a new social contract, or a assemblies and procedures should constitution—to an executive. be compulsory, removing—as far as The sovereign people would possible—the temptations of the embody the “general will,” an private will. But this belief in the expression of popular assent. necessity of combating private Day-to-day government, however, desires is exactly where Rousseau’s would depend on specific decisions, later, liberal critics have found the requiring a “particular will.” deepest fault. It was in this very distinction, Private versus general will Rousseau thought, that conflict The “general will,” however between the “general will” and the desirable in theory, could easily “particular will” opened up, paving be vested in deeply oppressive Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born ambassador to Venice in 1743. in Geneva, Switzerland. The son He left soon after for Paris, of a freeman entitled to vote in where he built a reputation as a city elections, he never wavered controversial essayist. When his in his appreciation of Geneva’s books were banned in France liberal institutions. Inheriting a and Geneva, he fled briefly to large library and a voracious London, but soon returned to appetite for reading, Rousseau France where he spent the rest received no formal education. At of his life. the age of 15, an introduction to the noblewoman Françoise-Louise Key works de Warens led to his conversion to Catholicism, exile from Geneva, 1754 Discourse on the Origin and and disownment by his father. Basis of Inequality Among Men 1762 Emile Rousseau began studying in 1762 The Social Contract earnest in his 20s and was 1770 Confessions appointed secretary to the

REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS 125 We are approaching a state of crisis and the age of revolutions. Jean-Jacques Rousseau The French Revolution began when an angry mob stormed the Bastille in Paris on July 14, 1789. The medieval fortress and prison was a symbol of royal power. arrangements. Not least was the representing the general will, nor an immense impact. In the French difficulty in actually ascertaining would any one faction be dominant Revolution, the Jacobins adopted the “general will.” The road for an enough to oppose the general will. him as a figurehead for their individual or a group claiming to own belief in the necessity of a express the general will, when States formed under illegitimate ruthlessly complete, egalitarian merely exercising their own social contracts based on the fraud transformation of French society. particular wills, was clearly wide of the powerful were not capable of In 1794, he was reinterred in open. Rousseau, in desiring to expressing this will, precisely the Panthéon, Paris, as a national make the people sovereign, could because their subjects were bound hero. Over the next two centuries, be presented as the forefather of to them only by deference to Rousseau’s work also acted as a totalitarianism. What repressive authority, not by mutual assent. touchstone for all those who regime since his time has not However, if the apparent contracts wished to see society radically attempted to claim the support between rulers and ruled were overhauled for the common good, of “the people”? illegitimate, based on a denial of from Karl Marx onward. people’s sovereignty rather than its Indeed, Rousseau’s provisions expression, it would follow that the Similarly, the arguments against against factions and divisions people had every right to depose Rousseau, during his life and after, among the people—which he, like their rulers. That, at least, is how have helped to shape both Machiavelli, saw as undermining the more radical of Rousseau’s later conservative and liberal thought. the state—could certainly turn followers came to interpret him. In 1791, Edmund Burke, one of the into a tyranny of the majority, in Rousseau himself was at best founders of modern conservatism, which unpopular minorities suffer ambiguous on the issue of outright held Rousseau to be almost at the hands of those exercising revolt, frequently denouncing personally responsible for the the “general will.” Rousseau’s violence and civil unrest and French Revolution and what he saw recommendation for dealing with urging respect for existing laws. as its excesses. Writing almost 200 this dilemma was to recognize years later, the radical-liberal the inevitability of factions, and to A revolutionary icon philosopher Hannah Arendt believed multiply them indefinitely—making Rousseau’s belief in the sovereignty the errors in Rousseau’s thinking so many particular wills that no one of the people, and the perfectibility helped to drive the Revolution away of them would stand a chance of of both people and society, has had from its liberal roots. ■

126 IN CONTEXT NO GENERALLY IDEOLOGY VALID PRINCIPLE Freedom OF LEGISLATION CAN BE BASED FOCUS ON HAPPINESS Personal responsibility IMMANUEL KANT (1724–1804) BEFORE 380 BCE Plato argues in the Republic that the state’s main aim is to ensure the happiness of all people. 1689 In his Second Treatise on Government, John Locke states that by a “social contract” people delegate their right of self-protection to government. AFTER 1851 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon argues that the social contract should be between individuals, not between individuals and government. 1971 In his book A Theory of Justice, John Rawls combines Kant’s idea of autonomy with Social Choice theory. I n 1793, the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote an essay entitled “On the Common Saying: ‘That may be right in theory, but it does not work in practice,’” which is often now referred to simply as Theory and Practice. The essay was written in a year of momentous political change: George Washington became the first president of the US, the German city of Mainz declared itself an independent republic, and the French Revolution reached its height with the execution of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Kant’s essay examined not only political theory and practice, but also the

REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS 127 See also: Plato 34–39 ■ Thomas Hobbes 96–103 ■ John Locke 104–09 ■ Jean-Jacques Rousseau 118–25 ■ Jeremy Bentham 144–49 ■ John Rawls 298–303 Happiness is gained This means that it cannot Kant considers what would happen and felt in different ways be used to generate fixed in a society where people live “in a principles that are equally state of nature,” free to pursue their by different people. own desires. He sees the main applicable to everyone. problem as a conflict of interests. What do you do, for instance, if your …no generally Since laws must be agreed neighbor moves into your house valid principle of as applicable to all, and throws you out, and there are legislation can be and reflective of the no laws to stop him or give you any based on happiness. common will… redress? Kant claims that a state of nature is a recipe for anarchy, in legitimacy of government itself. instead, he believed, is that the which disputes cannot be settled This was a topic that had become state ensures people’s freedom peacefully. For this reason people literally a matter of life or death. within the law “so that each willingly “abandon the state of remains free to seek his happiness nature… in order to submit to In stating that “no generally in whatever way he thinks best, so external public and lawful valid principle of legislation can be long as he does not violate the coercion.” Kant’s position follows on based on happiness,” Kant argues lawful freedom and rights of his from the English philosopher John with a position taken by the Greek fellow subjects at large.” Locke’s earlier idea of the social philosopher Plato some 2,000 years contract, which says that people earlier. Kant’s essay states that make a contract with the state in happiness does not work as a basis which they each freely consent to for law. No one can—nor should— give up some of their freedom in try to define what happiness is for exchange for the state’s protection. someone else, so a rule based on happiness cannot be applied The consent of all consistently. “For… the highly Kant asserts that governments conflicting and variable illusions must remember that they govern as to what happiness is,” Kant only by the people’s consent—not ❯❯ wrote, “… make all fixed principles impossible, so that happiness alone can never be a suitable principle of legislation.” What is crucial King Louis XVI of France was executed in 1793. For Kant the French Revolution was a warning to all governments that they must rule for the good of all the people.

128 IMMANUEL KANT the consent of a few people, nor Most people would even a majority, but of the entire agree that driving through population. What counts is that no one among the population might a red light would not potentially object to a proposed be a good thing if law. “For if the law is such that a everyone did it. whole people could not possibly agree to it, it is unjust; but if it Kant’s categorical imperative states is at least possible that a people that you should act only according to could agree to it, it is our duty to rules or maxims that you would wish consider the law just.” to be universally applicable. The state should not pass laws that do not meet Kant’s idea acts as an important this criterion. guide for the citizen as well as the government, because he is person, he says, must act as though whether a government has a role in also saying that if a government they were lawmakers through each promoting the happiness of its passes a law that you consider of the moral choices they make. people. He is clear that since only wrong, it is still your moral duty to an individual can decide what obey it. You might think it is wrong The will of the people makes him happy, any legislation to pay taxes to your government At the heart of Kant’s philosophy— designed to improve people’s to fund a war, but you should not and applicable to both morality and situation must be based on their withhold your taxes because politics—is the notion of autonomy. actual wishes, not what the you feel the war is unjust or This is the idea that the human will government believes will be good unnecessary, because “it is at least is and must be wholly independent. for them. Nor should a government possible that the war is inevitable Freedom is not being unbound by compel individuals to make other and the tax indispensable.” any law, but being bound by laws people happy. It cannot, for example, of one’s own making. The link force you to go and see your However, for Kant, although between morals and state laws grandmother regularly, even though subjects have a duty to obey is direct: the legitimacy of both it might be good for the country’s the law, they also have to take morality and laws is that they are general happiness if grandmothers individual responsibility for based on the rational desires of the were properly appreciated. their moral choices. He says people; the social contract is “based that morals have a “categorical on a coalition of the wills of all A state without happiness? imperative.” By this, he means private individuals in a nation.” Some commentators have argued that an individual should only follow State laws must be literally “the that Kant does not see happiness rules or maxims that they believe will of the people.” So, if we agree as playing any part in government should apply to everyone. Each to be governed, we must rationally thinking. If this were the case, agree to obey every law the however, the state would do no No one can compel me government passes. By the same more than protect its citizens to be happy in accordance token, though, the laws of an physically. It would have no external government, such as an business providing education; with his conception occupying force or colonial power, building things such as hospitals, of the welfare of others. have no legitimacy. Kant asks art galleries, and museums, or Immanuel Kant

REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS 129 All right consists solely is a misunderstanding of Kant’s In recent years, commentators have in the restriction of the position. They claim that Kant wondered whether governments, is not necessarily saying the perhaps still powerfully influenced freedom of others. promotion of happiness should not by the narrower interpretation of Immanuel Kant play a part in the thinking of the Kant’s advice, have concentrated state—just that happiness cannot too much on economics and justice roads and railways; or in looking be the sole criterion. In addition, and left happiness out of the picture. after people’s welfare in any way. Kant points out that happiness Responding to these criticisms, in This position may be logically can only be found after a solid 2008 France’s then president Nicolas consistent, but it is not a recipe constitution, outlining the role of Sarkozy commissioned a report for a state where very many of us the state, is already in place. In from a team led by US economist would want to live. Theory and Practice, he says “the Joseph Stiglitz to measure his doctrine that ‘the public welfare country’s “well-being.” ■ All the same, in the last is the supreme law of the state’ 50 years, some thinkers have used retains its value and authority this interpretation of Kant as a undiminished; but the public basis for the privatization of state welfare which demands first industries, and for the dismantling consideration lies precisely of the welfare system on the in that legal constitution grounds that it is an infringement which guarantees everyone of individual freedom to expect his freedom within the law.” people to pay taxes for other people’s happiness. However, Rights and happiness Intervention in Afghanistan may other commentators believe this Two years before Theory and be unpopular with the public in the US Practice, in an essay entitled and Europe but, according to Kant, this Perpetual Peace, Kant wrote that discontent does not give individuals governments have two sets of duties: the right to withhold their taxes. to protect the rights and liberties of the people as a matter of justice, and to promote the happiness of the people, as long as they can do this without diminishing the rights and freedom of the people. Immanuel Kant The German philosopher before becoming a professor of Immanuel Kant was born in logic and metaphysics at the age Königsberg, Prussia (now of 46. He gained international Kaliningrad in Russia), and lived fame with the publication of there his whole life. The fourth of his Critiques, and continued to nine children of Lutheran parents, teach for the rest of his life. he was educated at a Lutheran He is considered by many to school, where he gained a love of be the greatest thinker of the Latin but took a strong dislike to 18th century. religious introspection. At the age of 16, he enrolled as a theology Key works student, but soon became fascinated by philosophy, 1781 Critique of Pure Reason mathematics, and physics. (revised 1787) 1788 Critique of Practical Kant worked at the University of Reason Königsberg as an unpaid lecturer 1793 Theory and Practice and sub-librarian for 15 years

130 IN CONTEXT THE PASSIONS IDEOLOGY OF INDIVIDUALS Conservativism SHOULD BE SUBJECTED FOCUS Political tradition EDMUND BURKE (1729–1797) BEFORE 1688 English landowners force the abdication of James II in the Glorious Revolution. 1748 Montesquieu asserts that liberty is maintained in England by a balance of power in different parts of society. AFTER 1790–91 Paine’s Rights of Man and Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman counter Burke’s work. 1867–94 Marx’s Capital states that the overthrow of the status quo is inevitable. 1962 Michael Oakeshott upholds the importance of tradition in public institutions. I n 1790, British statesman and political theorist Edmund Burke wrote one of the first and most cogent criticisms of the revolution in France, which had begun the previous year. His pamphlet, entitled “Reflections on the French Revolution,” suggested that the passions of individuals should not be allowed to dictate political judgments. When the revolution began, Burke had been surprised by it, but not overtly critical. He was shocked by the ferocity of the insurgents, but admired their revolutionary spirit —much as he had admired the American revolutionaries in their quarrel with the English crown.

REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS 131 See also: Jean-Jacques Rousseau 118–25 ■ Thomas Paine 134–39 ■ Thomas Jefferson 140–41 ■ Georg Hegel 156–59 ■ Karl Marx 188–93 ■ Vladimir Lenin 226–33 ■ Michael Oakeshott 276–77 ■ Michel Foucault 310–11 By the time Burke was writing political being—from the behavior John Bull is tempted by the devil, his pamphlet, the revolution had of monarchs to the inherited who hangs from the Tree of Liberty, gathered momentum. Food was aristocratic codes of behavior— symbolizing the fear of French scarce, and rumors abounded that have developed over generations revolutionary zeal spreading to England the king and aristocrats were set in such an elaborate way that at the time of Burke’s writings. to overthrow the Third Estate (the nobody can understand how it all rebellious people). Peasants rose works. The habit of government is up against their ruling lords, who— so deep-rooted among the ruling in fear for their lives—granted them class, he says, that they barely their freedom through the have to think about it. Anyone Declaration of the Rights of Man believing they can use their powers and of the Citizen. This affirmed of reason to destroy society and that all people had “natural rights” build a better one from scratch— to liberty, property, and security, such as Enlightenment thinker and to resist oppression. Jean-Jacques Rousseau—is foolish and arrogant. However, the king refused to sanction the Declaration, and on Abstract rights October 5, 1789, crowds of Burke is particularly damning Parisians marched to Versailles of the Enlightenment concept of to join the peasants in forcing the natural rights. They may be all ❯❯ king and his family back to Paris. For Burke, this was a step too far, Government is a human invention to oversee and it provoked him to write his human needs in society. critical pamphlet—which has been seen ever since as the classic rebuttal to would-be revolutionaries. Government as organism But some human needs and desires Burke was a Whig, a member of a conflict with those of other people. British political party that favored the gradual progress of society—as Government must judge between conflicting opposed to the Tory party, which wants to produce the fairest outcome. strove to maintain the status quo. Burke championed emancipation The individual’s passions must be for Catholics in Ireland and for subjected to the government’s laws. India from the corrupt East India Company. But, unlike other Whigs, he believed the continuity of government was sacrosanct. In Reflections, he argues that government is like a living thing, with a past and a future. We cannot kill it and start anew, as the French revolutionaries aimed to do. Burke sees government as a complex organism that grows over time into the subtle, living form that it is today. The nuances of its

132 EDMUND BURKE very well in theory, he says, but of the rest. If everyone is allowed The social contract… that’s where the problem lies: “their to behave as he wishes, expressing is between those who are abstract perfection is their practical every passion and whim, the living, those who are dead, defect.” Also, for Burke, a theoretical result is chaos. Indeed, not just and those who are to be born. right to a good or service is of no individuals but the masses as a use whatsoever if there is no means whole must be so constrained, Edmund Burke to procure it. There is no end to “by a power out of themselves.” what people may reasonably claim William and Mary, was about as rights. In reality, rights are This refereeing role requires “a preserving the status quo against a simply what people want, and it is deep knowledge of human nature wayward monarch, not fabricating the government’s task to mediate and human necessities,” and is a new government, which would fill between the wants of people. so complex that theoretical rights Burke with “disgust and horror.” Some wants can even include are a distraction. restraint on the wants of others. Burke defended an unthinking Habit and prejudice emotional response to respect the It is a fundamental rule of any Burke was skeptical of individual king and parliament as “the general civil society, Burke says, “that no rights, arguing instead for tradition bank and capital of nations.” He man should be judge in his own and habit. He viewed government saw this as far superior to the cause.” To live in a free and just as an inheritance to be carried vagaries of individual reason, but society, a man must give up his forward safely into the future, regarded prejudice as an age-old right to determine many things he and made a distinction between wisdom that could produce a fast, deems essential. In claiming that England’s Glorious Revolution of automatic response in emergencies “the passions of individuals should 1688 and France’s ongoing turmoil. that left the rational man hesitating. be subjected,” Burke means that The English revolution, which society must control the unruly replaced the Catholic-leaning The consequences of ignoring will of the individual for the good King James II with the Protestant these traditions may be dire, Burke warned. New men entering the Burke saw the discussion of Though all men have political fray would not be able to abstract rights as a distraction a natural right to run an existing government, let from the main task of government food and medicine… alone a new one. Struggles between —to mediate between the wants factions trying to step into the and needs of those they govern. power vacuum would inevitably lead to bloodshed and terror—and …what matters is a chaos so consuming that the the method of military would have to take over. procuring and The Burke revolution administering them. Burke’s prediction of both the Terror in the French Revolution, which occurred in 1793 and 1794, and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799, earned him a reputation as something of a seer. His arguments

REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS 133 Napoleon Bonaparte swept to power from the few to the many could Edmund Burke in 1799, fulfilling Edmund Burke’s 1790 only ever result in “inconceivably prediction that a military dictatorship small” gains. Born in Dublin, Ireland, in would follow the revolutionary 1729, Burke was raised as a overthrow of the monarchy in France. Although Napoleon was Protestant, while his sister, eventually defeated, the revolutions Juliana, was raised a Catholic. appealed to those on the right, but that rolled on through Europe long He initially trained as a were also a surprise to those on the after Burke’s death gave his ideas a lawyer, but soon gave up law left. Thomas Jefferson, then living special place in the hearts of those to become a writer. In 1756, he in France as a US diplomat, wrote, frightened by the uprisings. Burke’s published A Vindication of “The Revolution in France does plea for the continuity of government Natural Society, a satire of not astonish me as much as the and society seemed to some to be Tory leader Lord Bolingbroke’s revolution in Mr Burke.” In England, a beacon of sanity in a mad world. views on religion. Soon after, Thomas Paine immediately wrote However, for Karl Marx—who was he became private secretary The Rights of Man—published in particularly critical of Burke’s ideas to Lord Rockingham, the 1791—to challenge Burke’s on property—and many others, Whig prime minister. argument against natural rights. Burke’s defense of inequality was unacceptable. Burke argued In 1774, Burke became a persuasively against the trashing Member of Parliament, later of tradition, but according to his losing his seat due to the critics, this leads ultimately to unpopularity of his views on the defense of societies in which the emancipation of Catholics. the majority are kept in a life of His fight for the abolition of servitude, with no prospect of capital punishment earned him betterment and no say in their a reputation as a progressive. future. Burke’s defense of prejudice, However, his criticism of the intended as a call for sympathy for French Revolution caused a people’s natural inclinations, can split with the radical wing end up as an argument for blind of his Whig party, and today bigotry. His assertion that the he is remembered more for passions of individuals should his conservative philosophy be subjected is potentially a than his liberal views. justification for censorship, the persecution of dissenters, Key works and a police state. ■ 1756 A Vindication of The power of property The great feudal lords Natural Society Burke believed that society’s created an incomparably 1770 Thoughts on the Cause stability was underpinned larger proletariat by the of the Present Discontents by inherited property—the 1790 Reflections on the massive inherited properties forcible driving of the Revolution in France of the landowning aristocracy. peasantry from the land. Only such rich landowners had the power, self-interest, and inherited Karl Marx political skill, Burke asserted, to prevent the monarchy overreaching itself. The great size of their landholdings also acted as a natural protection for the lesser properties around them. In any case, he argued, the redistribution

RIGHTS DEPENDENT ON PROPERTY ARE THE MOST PRECARIOUS THOMAS PAINE (1737–1809)



136 THOMAS PAINE Current rights to vote depend on ownership of property. IN CONTEXT Property owners abuse their position IDEOLOGY of privilege to run society for their Republicanism own benefit. FOCUS This breeds resentment among the poor, Universal male suffrage who will rise up against the rich if their BEFORE needs are neglected. 508 BCE Democracy in Athens gives all male citizens a vote. Rights dependent on property are the 1647 A radical part of Oliver most precarious. Cromwell’s New Model Army calls for universal male suffrage Rights should be granted without and an end to monarchy. property qualification. 1762 Jean-Jacques Rousseau publishes The Social Contract, arguing that sovereignty lies with the whole people. AFTER 1839–48 Chartism, a mass movement in Britain, calls for universal male suffrage. 1871 A newly united German empire grants universal male suffrage. 1917–19 As World War I ends, democratic republics replace monarchies across Europe. T he English Revolution, corrupt and unelected Upper House popular pamphlets, he sought to which reached the peak of in the Lords, and a monarch who reclaim arguments for democracy its radicalism with the trial was still nominally head of state. and republicanism that had been and execution of King Charles I in made during Cromwell’s time. 1649, had fizzled out by the end of The 1689 Bill of Rights that set the 17th century. The “Glorious out the parameters for the new The case for democracy Revolution” of 1688 had seen the government was a compromise In Common Sense, published restoration of the monarchy, now that satisfied few, least of all those anonymously in Philadelphia in subordinate to Parliament, and the most obviously excluded from it: 1776, Paine made the case for a stabilization of the British state. No the Irish, Catholics, and non- radical break by Britain’s North formal constitution was written, and conformists; the poor and the American colonists from both the the brief experiment with a republic artisans; even the more prosperous British empire and constitutional under Oliver Cromwell was over. The middle classes and employees of monarchy. Like Hobbes and new government was a hybrid made the state. It was from this milieu Rousseau before him, he argued of a corrupt and unrepresentative that Thomas Paine emerged, after that people come to form natural Lower House in the Commons, a emigrating to America in 1774. In attachments to each other, creating a series of incendiary and wildly

REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS 137 See also: Thomas Hobbes 96–103 ■ John Locke 104–09 ■ Jean-Jacques Rousseau 118–25 ■ Edmund Burke 130–33 ■ Thomas Jefferson 140–41 ■ Oliver Cromwell 333 ■ John Lilburne 333 ■ George Washington 334 When we are planning Even a mixed state with a founders of modern conservative for posterity, we ought constitutional monarchy, as thought, had strongly supported to remember that virtue advocated by John Locke, would the rights of American colonies to be dangerous, since a monarch independence. Burke and Paine is not hereditary. could easily obtain more power and had been on friendly terms since Thomas Paine circumvent laws. Paine believed Paine’s arrival back in England, but it was better to do away with the Burke had ferociously denounced a society from individuals. As these monarch entirely. the French Revolution, claiming attachments of family, friendship, or in his 1790 Reflections on the trade become more complex, they It followed that America’s best Revolution in France that by its in turn create a need for regulation. course of action in its war with radicalism it threatened the very These regulations are systematized the British empire was to refuse order of society. Burke viewed into laws, and a government is any compromise on the issue of society as an organic whole, not erected to create and enforce those the monarchy. Only with full amenable to sudden change. The laws. These laws are intended to independence could a democratic American Revolution and Britain’s act for the people, but there are too society be built. Paine’s clear and “Glorious Revolution” did not many people to make collective unequivocal call for a democratic directly threaten long-established decisions. Democracy is required, republic was an immediate success rights, but merely corrected some to elect representatives. in the midst of the Revolutionary clear deformities in the system. War against the British empire. In particular, they did not threaten Democracy, Paine held, was the Returning to England in 1787, he the rights of property. But the most natural way to balance the visited France two years later, and situation in France, with its violent needs of society with those of became a firm supporter of the overthrow of the ancien regime, government. Voting would act as French Revolution. was clearly different. the regulating instrument between society and government, allowing Reflections on revolution Burke’s opposition caused Paine society to shape government so that On returning from France, Paine to defend his position. He replied it more closely corresponded to had a rude awakening. Edmund with The Rights of Man, printed social needs. Institutions such as Burke, a politician and one of the in early 1791. Despite official ❯❯ monarchy were unnatural, since the hereditary principle stood apart from society as a whole, and monarchs could act in their own interests. The inattentive judges in William Hogarth’s satirical The Bench (1758) are portrayed as members of an idle, incompetent, and venal judiciary that has little regard for society’s rights.

138 THOMAS PAINE The French National Assembly has its roots in the French Revolution’s National Convention, which was the country’s first governing assembly to be elected by universal male suffrage. censorship, it became the best- called for an elected National 1689 gave guarantees about the known and widest-circulated of all Convention to draft a new, rights all subjects would enjoy in English defenses of the revolution republican constitution for England. a constitutional monarchy, it was in France. Paine argued for the This was a direct call for revolution open to abuse. Paine detailed some rights of every generation to remake in all but name, taking France’s of the most obnoxious instances of its political and social institutions republican National Convention as corruption, but he wanted to go as it saw fit, not bound by existing its model. Paine had returned to further and tackle the system itself. authority. A hereditary monarch France shortly before the Address By defending hereditary property had no claim to superiority over was published, and in his absence as the supreme law, this system this right. Rights, not property, was found guilty of seditious libel. drove the corruption and abuse. were the only hereditary principle, The tyranny of William Pitt’s transmitted across the generations. The argument in the Address government was a direct result of A second part to the pamphlet, is brief, but tackles Burke head on. its defense of property. At the top published in 1792, argued for a Although England’s Bill of Rights of of the regime was a hereditary major program of social welfare. monarch, and Parliament acted By the end of the year, the two merely as a defense of Crown and volumes had sold 200,000 copies. property. Reform of the corrupt Parliament was not enough: the whole system had to be transformed, from the top down. Universal male suffrage Paine asserted that sovereignty should not lie with the monarch, but with the people, who have an An end to monarchy Property qualifications for voting Universal male suffrage redresses Under threat of prosecution, and create inequalities between the rich the balance—the rights of the rich with “Church and King” mobs and the poor, leading to corruption and the poor must then be considered burning his figure in effigy, Paine and a monopoly of power. in the creation of policies. offered a still more radical step. His Letter Addressed to the Addressers on the Late Proclamation was written against “the numerous rotten boroughs and corporation addresses” that had published the royal proclamation against “seditious libel”—the writing and printing of texts that attacked the state. Paine, denouncing this and other abuses as a new tyranny,

REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS 139 It will always be found, interests and corrupt practices A Chartist Convention held a mass that when the rich protect would be squeezed out. Universal meeting at Kennington Common in the rights of the poor, the male suffrage would determine the London on April 10, 1848, demanding delegates to the Convention, and electoral reforms of the kind advocated poor will protect the these delegates would be charged by Thomas Paine. property of the rich. with drafting a new constitution Thomas Paine for Britain. It was England’s and the hated property qualification property qualification for voting for voting was eventually removed absolute right to make or unmake that Paine held most responsible for in the 1867 Second Reform Act. laws and governments as they see the corruption and venality of the fit. The existing system contained electoral system. Only in a system It was in Paine’s adopted no mechanism to allow the people where the rights of both rich and countries of America and France to change the government. It was poor were equally considered that his ideas had the most impact therefore necessary, Paine argued, would each respect the other, and —perhaps especially in the United to sidestep the system by electing neither seek to rob the other. States, where he is credited as a new assembly—a National one of the Founding Fathers of Convention, as in France. A legacy for reform independence and the Constitution, Paine’s short pamphlet never quite and where his writings swayed Paine attempted to popularize achieved the success of either thousands toward the cause of an argument made by Rousseau: Common Sense or The Rights of democracy and republicanism. ■ that the “general will” of the people Man, but the radical argument should be sovereign in a nation, presented in the Address—for a and that with transparent and fair republic, a new constitution, and elections to the Convention, private a National Convention elected by universal male suffrage—formed the core of reformers’ demands in Britain for the next 50 years. The London Corresponding Society, from the 1790s onward, called for a National Convention; the Chartists of the 1840s actually held a National Convention, which thoroughly alarmed the authorities; Thomas Paine Thomas Paine was born in The Rights of Man, which led to Thetford, England. He emigrated a charge of seditious libel. After to America in 1774, having lost his fleeing to France, he was elected job as a tax collector after agitating to the National Convention for better pay and conditions. With there, and avoided execution a recommendation from Benjamin during the Terror. He returned Franklin, he became editor of a to America in 1802 at President local magazine in Pennsylvania. Jefferson’s invitation, and died seven years later in New York. Common Sense was published in 1776, selling 100,000 copies in Key works three months, among a colonial population of two million. In 1781, 1776 Common Sense Paine helped to negotiate large 1791 The Rights of Man sums from the French king for the 1792 Letter Addressed to the American Revolution. Returning to Addressers on the Late London in 1790, and inspired by Proclamation the French Revolution, he wrote

140 ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL THOMAS JEFFERSON (1742–1826) IN CONTEXT T he American Declaration of cost of the wars. Parliament did not Independence is one of the have a single representative from IDEOLOGY most famous texts in the the American colonies, yet it was Nationalism English language. Its assertion making decisions on their behalf. that all people hold the right to Protests in Boston against taxation FOCUS “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of without representation led to Universal rights Happiness” still helps to define how British military intervention, which we think about a good life, and the spiraled into war. At the First BEFORE conditions that make it possible. Continental Congress of 1774, the 1649 England’s King Charles I colonists demanded their own is tried and executed for acting The Declaration was drafted parliament. A year later, at the “against the public interest, during the American Revolution, Second Congress, with King common right, liberty, justice, a revolt of Britain’s 13 American George III spurning their demands, and peace of the people.” colonies against rule by the Crown. they pushed for total independence. By 1763, Britain had won a series of 1689 John Locke refutes the wars against France for possession From Old World to New divine right of kings and insists of these colonies, and was now Thomas Jefferson, a delegate to the sovereignty lies in the people. taxing them to offset the huge Second Continental Congress, was appointed to draft a declaration of AFTER The God who gave us independence. He was a key figure 1789 The French Revolution’s life gave us liberty at in the American Enlightenment, Declaration of the Rights of the same time; the hand the intellectual movement that Man and Citizen asserts that of force may destroy but was a prelude to the revolution. all men “are born and remain cannot disjoin them. free with equal rights.” Thomas Jefferson Colonists from Europe could look back to the Old World and see 1948 The UN adopts the absolute monarchies and corrupt Universal Declaration of oligarchies presiding over squalid, Human Rights. unequal societies, which were often at war, with religious tolerance and 1998 DNA evidence suggests minimal freedoms thrown aside. that Jefferson may have Jefferson and other intellectuals in fathered the children of his the New World looked to thinkers slave Sarah Hemings. such as English liberal philosopher John Locke, who stressed the

REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS 141 See also: Hugo Grotius 94–95 ■ John Locke 104–09 ■ Jean-Jacques Rousseau 118–25 ■ Thomas Paine 134–39 ■ George Washington 334 All men are created equal. They are endowed with inherent and inalienable rights. Hereditary rule Only a republic is Thomas Jefferson transgresses the compatible with the inalienable rights of men. inalienable rights of men. Thomas Jefferson was born in Shadwell, Virginia. He was The colonies must break a plantation owner, and later a with European hereditary rule lawyer, who became the third and become independent republics. president of the United States in 1801. A key figure in the “natural rights” of humanity, and Thomas Paine, whose pamphlet Enlightenment, he was the need for government to hold to a Common Sense early in 1776 appointed as the principal “social contract” with the governed. popularized the arguments for author of the Declaration of a republic. The Declaration of Independence in June 1776, While Locke had defended Independence marked a break not while serving as a delegate Britain’s constitutional monarchy, only with colonialism, but with all from Virginia to the Second Jefferson and others took a far more hereditary rule, which was held to Continental Congress. radical message from his writings. be incompatible with the notion that To Locke’s support for private “all men are created equal” and to As a planter, Jefferson property and freedom of thought, transgress their “inalienable rights.” owned well over 100 slaves, Jefferson added republicanism. In and he struggled to reconcile this, he was highly influenced by Signed on July 4, 1776, by this position with his beliefs in representatives of 13 states, the full equality. His text denouncing text still retains its original force in slavery in the original draft of its denunciation of the arbitrary rule the Declaration was excised of monarchs. It helped shape the by the Congress. Following French Revolution and, from Gandhi victory over Britain in 1783, to Ho Chi Minh, inspired leaders of Jefferson’s subsequent move future independence movements. ■ to ban slavery in the new republic was defeated by a Jefferson presented the first draft single vote in Congress. of the Declaration of Independence to the Congress. The final version was read After losing the presidency aloud in the streets in the hope that it in 1808, Jefferson remained would inspire men to sign up to fight. active in public life, founding the University of Virginia in 1819. He died on July 4, 1826. Key works 1776 Declaration of Independence 1785 Notes on the State of Virginia

142 EACH NATIONALITY CONTAINS ITS CENTER OF HAPPINESS WITHIN ITSELF JOHANN GOTTFRIED HERDER (1744–1803) IN CONTEXT People are shaped by the I n 18th-century Europe, places they grow up… Enlightenment philosophers IDEOLOGY tried to show how the light of Nationalism …because shared languages reason could lead the human race and landscapes help to out of superstition. Johann Herder, FOCUS however, believed that a search Cultural identity create a national spirit, for universal truths based solely or Volksgeist. on reason was flawed, since it BEFORE neglected the fact that human 98 CE The Roman senator and This national spirit forges a nature varies according to cultural historian Tacitus hails German community with a particular and physical environments. People virtues in Germania. need a sense of belonging, and national character. their outlook is shaped by the 1748 Montesquieu argues places they grow up in. that national character and People depend on this the nature of a government national community National spirit are reflections of climate. Herder argued that language is for happiness. crucial in forming a sense of self, and AFTER so the natural grouping for humanity 1808 German philosopher Each nationality is the nation—not necessarily the Johann Fichte develops the contains its center state, but the cultural nation with concept of the Volk or “people” its shared language, customs, and in the movement for Romantic of happiness folk-memory. He believed that a Nationalism. within itself. community is forged by a national spirit—the Volksgeist—which 1867 Karl Marx criticizes emerges from language and nationalism as a “false reflects the physical character consciousness” that prevents of the homeland. He saw nature people from realizing they and the landscape as nurturing and deserve better. supporting the people, binding them with their national character. 1925 Adolf Hitler champions the racial supremacy of the People depend on this national German nation in Mein Kampf. community for happiness. “Each nation has its center of happiness

REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS 143 See also: Montesquieu 110–11 ■ Guissepe Mazzini 172–73 ■ Karl Marx 188–93 ■ Friedrich Nietzsche 196–99 ■ Theodor Herzl 208–09 ■ Marcus Garvey 252 ■ Adolf Hitler 337 It is nature that educates more manifestly contrary to the stereotyping. His emphasis on people: the most natural state purpose of political government national culture neglects other than the unnatural enlargement of influences—such as economics, is therefore one nation, an states, the mixing of various races politics, and social contacts with extended family with one and nationalities under one different people—making his views scepter.” Herder was referring to less credible in the modern, national character. the perils of colonialism and empire globalized world. Arguably, he Johann Gottfried Herder building, but his ideas can be overestimated the prominence of related to modern multiculturalism. nationality in people’s priorities, within itself,” Herder asserts, “just which can be swayed by anything as every sphere has its own center Rising nationalism from family ties to religious views. ■ of gravity.” If people are taken out Herder’s ideas were an inspiration of their national environment, they for the rising tide of Romantic Nationalism as championed by Herder lose contact with this center of nationalism that swept through became an important part of the Nazi gravity and are deprived of this Europe in the 19th century as a party’s ideology. This travel brochure natural happiness. Herder was not range of peoples—from the Greeks from 1938 depicts an Aryan couple only concerned about emigration, to the Belgians—asserted their enjoying traditional folk dancing. but also immigration, which he nationhood and self-determination. believed upset the organic unity But national or racial superiority of national culture—the only true was often assumed, culminating basis of government. “Nothing is in the German persecution of the Jews, and in “ethnic cleansing.” Although the Holocaust cannot be laid directly at Herder’s door, he did state that Jews are “alien to this part of the world [Germany].” Herder’s idea of a national center of gravity also ignores the diversity of views and cultures within each nation, and leads to national Johann Gottfried Herder was born in Mohrungen his ideas of language, nationality, Herder in Prussia (now Morag in Poland) and people’s response to the in 1744. At 17, he studied under world. He began to collect folk Kant and was mentored by Johan songs capturing the Volksgeist— Hamann at the University of the “spirit”—of the German Königsberg. After graduation, he people. Herder was made a taught in Riga before traveling noble by the elector-prince of to Paris and then Strasbourg, Bavaria and so was able to call where he met the writer Goethe, himself “von” Herder. He died on whom he had a profound in Weimar in 1803. influence. The German Romantic literary movement led by Goethe Key works was inspired partly by Herder’s claim that poets are the creators 1772 Treatise on the Origin of nations. Goethe’s influence of Language gained Herder a post at the court 1773 Voices of the People in of Weimar, where he developed their Songs

GOVERNMENT HAS BUT A CHOICE OF EVILS JEREMY BENTHAM (1748–1832)



146 JEREMY BENTHAM T he idea that government to be the only moral quality? What has but a choice of evils if you decide whether an action IN CONTEXT runs right through the is good or not entirely by its work of English philosopher Jeremy usefulness, by whether it produces IDEOLOGY Bentham, from as early as 1769, a good effect—crucially, whether Utilitarianism when he was a young trainee it makes people happier or not? lawyer, to the end of his life 50 FOCUS years later, when he had become a Looked at in this way, all Public policy hugely influential figure in British morality is at root about creating and European political thought. happiness and avoiding misery. BEFORE Any other description is an 1748 Montesquieu asserts The year 1769, Bentham wrote unnecessary elaboration or, worse, in The Spirit of the Laws half a century later, was “a most a deliberate veiling of the truth. that liberty in England is interesting year.” At the time, Religions are often guilty of this maintained by the balance he was reading the works of obfuscation, Bentham says, but so between the power of different philosophers such as Montesquieu, too are those high-flown political parts of society. Beccaria, and Voltaire—all forward- idealists who assert people’s rights thinking leaders of the continental and so miss the point that it is all 1748 David Hume suggests Enlightenment. But it was the work really about making people happy. that good and bad can be of two British writers—David Hume seen in terms of usefulness. and Joseph Priestley—that set This is true, Bentham argues, off great sparks of revelation in not just on a personal and moral 1762 Jean-Jacques Rousseau young Bentham’s mind. level, but on a public and political argues in The Social Contract level, too. And if both private that every law the people Morality and happiness morality and public policy are have not ratified in person In An Enquiry Concerning Human reduced to this simple aim, is not a law. Understanding (1748), Hume says everyone can agree—and men that one way to distinguish good and women of good will can work AFTER and bad is by usefulness. A good together to achieve the same end. 1861 John Stuart Mill warns of quality is only really good if it is the “tyranny of the majority,” put to good use. But for the sharp, So what, then, is a happy, useful and states that government no-nonsense lawyer Bentham, outcome? Bentham is a realist and should only interfere with this was still too vague. What if you accepts that even the best action individual liberties if they consider usefulness, or “utility,” produces some bad along with the cause harm to others. good. If one child has two sweets, another has one, and a third has Any law is a restriction So any law is Government has but on human freedom an evil. a choice of evils. and human happiness. This means that a good law But a law may is a necessary evil. produce more good than harm.

REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS 147 See also: Jean-Jacques Rousseau 118–25 ■ Immanuel Kant 126–29 ■ John Stuart Mill 174–81 ■ Friedrich Hayek 270–75 ■ John Rawls 298–303 none, the fairest action for the Bad governments For Bentham, each and children’s parents would be to take may allow a rich few every human should count a sweet from the child with two to live in comfort at the as one unit in the sum of and give it to the one with none. expense of the majority. human happiness, regardless This still leads to one of the of wealth or status. children losing a sweet. Similarly, A good government any government action will work produces the greatest justification for “hands-off” to the advantage of some but government—for scaling back the disadvantage of others. For happiness for the bureaucracy and for deregulation. Bentham, such actions should be greatest number. His views have even been used judged according to the following as an argument in favor of a criterion: an action is good if it Bentham’s time, when doctors conservative government that produces more pleasure than pain. frequently made patients more ill avoids introducing new laws, by bleeding them, draining some especially new laws that try The greatest good of their blood in an attempt to clear to change people’s behavior. ❯❯ Reading Priestley’s An Essay on out disease. When deciding the the First Principles of Government punishment for a criminal, for It is the greatest good (1768) sparked off the second great instance, the lawmaker must take to the greatest number revelation of 1769 for Bentham. He into account not just the direct draws from Priestley the idea that a effects of the mischief, but the of people which good act is one that produces the secondary effects, too—a robbery is the measure greatest happiness for the greatest does not just harm the victim, but of right and wrong. number. In other words, it’s all creates alarm in the community. Jeremy Bentham about arithmetic. Politics can be The punishment must also make simplified to one question—does the robber worse off, so that it it make more people happy than it outweighs any profit he gained makes sad? Bentham developed a by committing the crime. mathematical method, which he called “felicific calculus,” to work Hands-off government out whether a given government Bentham extended his idea into the act produced more happiness or less. field of economics, endorsing the view of Scottish economist Adam This is where the idea that Smith, who argued that markets “government has but a choice of work best without government evils” comes in. Any law is a restrictions. Since Bentham’s restriction on human liberty, time, many people have used argues Bentham—an interference his warning to lawmakers as a with the individual’s freedom to act completely as he or she wants. Therefore, every law is necessarily an evil. But doing nothing may also be an evil. The decision rests on the arithmetic. A new law can be justified if, and only if, it does more good than harm. He likens government to a doctor who should only intervene if he is sure the treatment will do more good than harm—an apt analogy for

148 JEREMY BENTHAM Good is pleasure comfort, for instance, many others or exemption from pain… must live in discomfort. Each person only counts as one unit Evil is pain or loss in Bentham’s sum of human of pleasure. happiness. This means that this imbalance is immoral, and it Jeremy Bentham is every government’s duty to continually work to address However, Bentham’s arguments the situation. also have far more radical implications. Governments Pragmatic democracy Bentham’s ideas were satirized by cannot stand still until everyone So how can rulers be persuaded to Charles Dickens, whose character Mr. is infinitely happy, which will spread the wealth, when that would Gradgrind, in the novel Hard Times, never happen. This means there seem to make them less happy? runs a school based on cold, hard is always work to do. Just as The answer, Bentham argues, is facts, leaving little room for fun. most people continue to search more democracy, meaning the for happiness throughout their extension of the franchise. If rulers helped to shift Britain toward lives, governments must fail to increase human happiness parliamentary reform and constantly strive to make for the greatest number, they get liberalism in the 1830s. Today, ever more people happy. voted out at the next election. In a Benthamite approach is a useful a democracy, politicians have a everyday benchmark for public Bentham’s moral arithmetic vested interest in increasing policy decisions, encouraging highlights not just the benefits of happiness for the majority to ensure governments to consider whether happiness, but its cost. It makes it they are reelected. While other each policy is, on balance, good clear that for someone to be happy, thinkers, from Rousseau to Paine, for the majority of people. someone else may have to pay a were pushing for democracy as a price. For a very rich few to live in natural right—without which a Hard facts man is denied his humanity— However, there are some real Bentham argued for it entirely problems with Bentham’s ideal-free pragmatically: as a means to an recipe of utilitarianism. The end. The idea of natural laws and English author Charles Dickens rights is, to Bentham, nothing hated the new breed of utilitarians more than “nonsense on stilts.” that followed Bentham, and satirized them mercilessly in his With their costs and benefits, novel Hard Times (1854), depicting profit and loss, Bentham’s them as killjoys stamping on the arguments for extending voting imagination and sapping the rights appealed to hard-nosed human spirit with their insistence British industrialists and on reducing life to hard facts. It is businessmen—the rising new not a picture that Bentham, a power base in the Industrial deeply empathetic man, would Revolution—in a way that no necessarily recognize, but it was a amount of idealism and talk clear reference to his reduction of man’s natural rights could. of every issue to arithmetic. Bentham’s down-to-earth, “utilitarian” arguments Inequalities in society mean that a rich minority exists alongside the poor. For Bentham this is morally unacceptable, and a government’s role is to ensure that a balance is reached.