What is Government?

1. What is Government? Lesson 2: Political Philosophy

2. James Madison "What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." The Federalist #51

3. One Basic Question??? • What kind of government should we have? • Lots of choices • Democracy, aristocracy, monarchy, constitutional republic • Classical liberal, socialist? What is Political Philosophy?

4. Martin L. Gross We live in a world in which politics has replaced philosophy.

5. What criteria…..? • Should lead to Happiness • Should be appropriate to the nature of humankind • Legitimate to a contract • Promote prosperity of its citizens

6. The Big Ideas • Equality Before the Law • Due Process • Right to Petition • Natural Rights • Civil Society • The Rule of Law • Limited Government • Separation of Powers • Judicial Review • Republicanism • Constitutionalism • Majority Rule • Popular Sovereignty • Liberal Democracy • Political Pluralism • Elitism • Checks and Balances • Federalism

7. What is human nature, that is, what traits of personality and character, if any, do people have in common? (Are people good or bad?) What should be the purpose of governments? How do people running the government get the right to govern? Six basic questions

8. How should government be organized? What are legitimate governments? What types of government should be overthrown? Six basic questions

9. All humans have natural rights These include "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" (not property?) Government’s purpose is to protect the individual’s rights Political authority comes from consent of governed If a government doesn’t do #3, citizens have an obligation to establish a new government Declaration of Independence

10. Ideal Happiness (1st Criteria) • Socrates: there is only one answer, SEARCH • There is no such thing as both sides have a point. • Plato: The Philosopher-king • The will of a Master, but benevolent • Aristotle: Debate is essential to Truth • Normal and natural • Man is a political animal From the Greeks

11. Plato (428-348 BC) • The Republic ~480BC • Kallipolis= ruled by the best • Philosopher Kings=the Good Life • Jobs, goods, marriage, children, education… • Everything!!! Plato

12. Mankind will never see an end of trouble until…lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of political power… become lovers of wisdom. Plato

13. Natural Rights Yet, Thomas Hobbes believed that if people want to live peacefully they have to give up some natural rights. John Locke thought that the three most important natural rights are life, liberty, and property.

14. Higher Law and Natural Rights "The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom." "In a true state of nature, indeed, all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of laws." Locke Montesquieu

15. State of Nature • State of nature is a hypothetical condition used to describe humanity before civilization and law. • State of nature may also be considered anarchy, a condition without government or rule of law. • The state of nature is devoid of protected human rights, since it is up to individuals to regulate themselves.

16. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) • Humans: distrustful, competitive, vain…thus violent. • Needed: all powerful “leviathan” to keep peace. • Think of children during recess… A Second Criteria: Appropriateness or Fitness

17. All Men equal But, rivals for the necessities of life Fear each other Could not exist except by the power of the state. "Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" What is Hobbes view of basic human nature?

18. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) Natural laws derive from reason First law: peace should be sought, and when it cannot be obtained, war ensues Second law: to have peace we must give up certain rights Third law: Contracts made must be kept. Power must be given to a person or assembly to ensure that the laws are maintained Social contract tells the ruler that we give up the right to self-government in exchange for requiring others to maintain the contract

19. Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) What would be a “good” Prince? feared rather than loved, but, not hated Support of the people Five virtues Decision is to use your own arms in battle Intelligence The Prince

20. Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) Five virtues must be exhibited to the outside, even if insincere Mercy Honesty Humaneness Uprightness Religiousness The Prince

21. Unlimited Divine Right of Kings Absolute Sovereign Should government limited or unlimited?

22. Without it men would be barbarians Dog Eat Dog Survival of the Fittest Might makes Right Big Fish eat little Fish According to Hobbes government is necessary for society?

23. John Locke felt: Man is in nature free, equal and independent; no one can put him out of this position without his consent. Self-interested and uncertain What is man's state?

24. How to protect your rights and still be in a state of nature Insecurity (not fear, uneasiness) People will not always respect one another’s rights People disagree as to what is the "law of nature" Locke’s Problems with state of nature

25. Freedom and Equality • “Natural Rights” to life, liberty and property • No slavery! • American founding • A “principled” case for liberalism A Third Criteria: contractual

26. Social Contract Theories • Social contract theories attempt to explain the ways in which people create states to govern and maintain social order. • A social contract is an agreement between the government and the governed regarding the limits of power on both parties. • Implicit in a social contract is the notion that people will surrender certain liberties and freedoms to establish a peaceful society. • Without a social contract, human beings would be forced to live in a "state of nature", without the rule of law, survival of the fittest.

27. Thomas Hobbes of the Scottish Enlightenment • Thomas Hobbes wrote Leviathanin 1651. • Hobbes suggested that humanity, without government, would be warlike, brutish, and short lived. • To escape the misery of nature, humanity accepts a social contract with a sovereign authority for protection and peace.

28. “…during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man" • The state of nature is a condition where any person has a natural right to do anything to preserve his own liberty or safety, and life. • The state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Hobbes wrote that humans developed mutual contracts to establish peace within the state of nature, "that every man ought to endeavor peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it… that a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defense of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men against himself."

29. Both of Plato and Hobbes lead to “total” states. • That means some person or persons with absolute authority. • Are there criteria that lead to limited states? • That is, limitations on state authority? • Yes…. Perhaps you noticed….

30. The Force Theory • One person or a small group took control of an area and forced everyone in the area to submit The Evolutionary Theory • State evolved naturally out of the early family The Divine Right Theory • God created the state • God gives those of royal birth a “divine right” to rule The Social Contract Theory • State arose out of a voluntary act of free people Origins of the State

31. James Harrington (1611-1677) Oceana (1656) Government separated into three bodies with different roles Proposing Resolving and debating Executing Proposed several bodies chosen by the people, including a senate and a body of the people to make the laws, and a magistracy to execute the laws. Oceana was seized during printing, but eventually released and published Seen as an attack on Cromwell Arrested, held without charge, died insane from scurvy The Commonwealth of Oceana

32. Harrington attempted to portray a utopian (ideal) government based on constitutional law. "The balance of a commonwealth that is equal is of such a nature that whatever falls into her empire must fall equally; and if the whole earth falls into your scales, it must fall equally, and so you may be a greater people and yet not swerve from your principles one hair. Nay, you will be so far from that that you must bring the world in such a case to your balance, even to the balance of justice."

33. Samuel Rutherfordwas a Scottish Presbyterian minister and part of the Scottish Enlightenment. • He wrote Lex, Rex, literally "the law [is] king" in 1644. • He attacked the doctrine of "Rex Lex", meaning "the king is the law." • Rutherford made a biblical argument against the absolute rule of monarchs based on the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 17, saying that men should be governed by law, not by the will of men. • Copies of Lex, Rex were burned after the English Restoration. • Rutherford was accused of high treason, but died of natural causes before he could be tried "The king receiveth royal power with the states to make good laws, and power by his royalty to execute those laws, and this power the community hath devolved in the hands of the king and states of parliament; but the community keepeth to themselves a power to resist tyranny…"

34. John Milton (right, seated) was an English poet best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost, written in 1667. In Paradise Lost, once humanity has "fallen"from the Garden of Eden, it is condemned to a servitude to desire and a need for government. "Since thy original lapse, true Liberty Is lost, which always with right Reason dwellsTwinn’d, and from her hath no individual being;Reason in man obscur’d, or not obey’d,Immediately inordinate desiresAnd upstart Passions catch the GovernmentFrom Reason, and to servitude reduceMan till then free."

35. In Milton’sTenure of Kings and Magistrates, 1649, he defends the right of people to execute a guilty sovereign. "Without which natural and essential power of a free Nation, though bearing high their heads, they can in due esteem be thought no better then slaves and vassals born, in the tenure and occupation of another inheriting Lord. Whose government, though not illegal, or intolerable, hangs over them as a Lordly scourge, not as a free government; and therefore to be abrogated. How much more justly then may they fling off tyranny, or tyrants; who being once depos'd can be no more the private men, as subject to the reach of Justice and arraignment as any other transgressors."

36. Whig Theory of Government All men were by nature free and equal Social contract Political power requires consent Government should be constitutionally limited to protecting fundamental rights Life, liberty and property Algernon Sydney

37. Ideas attributed to John Locke • Social contract theory • Theory of toleration • Belief that all men are created free and equal • Belief in the separation of church and state • The use of empiricism by using experience to find truth John Locke’s ideas are known to have directly influenced French, American, and Latin American Revolutions. His ideas can be found in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

38. Emerged as a social contract through cooperation in economic exchanges of property. According to Locke, how did government come into existence?

39. Man’s role is to be under the established legislative power set up by the consent of the commonwealth; under obligation to everyone in that commonwealth to submit to the determination of the majority. How does Locke explain man's role to government?

40. John Locke’s Social Contract • People have the natural right to life, liberty, and property. • Two Treatises of Governmentstates that if a government fails to uphold these natural rights then people have the right to rebel and overthrow the government. • Locke’s social contract suggests that people and government are bound to each other by consent. • Locke’s theory of the "consent of the governed"is in contrast to the "divine right of kings." • The concept of social contract underlies the principles of the United States Constitution.

41. Second Treatise of Government (1689) • John Locke wrote that persons in a state of nature would willingly come together to form a state government. • Locke believed that people would accept the state as a "neutral judge"to protect individual natural rights, such as life, liberty, and property.

42. "MEN being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent. The only way whereby any one divests himself of his natural liberty, and puts on the bonds of civil society, is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties, and a greater security against any, that are not of it."

43. The people freely Consent of the Governed Give up natural liberty in a state of nature for protection and security From whom do rulers get their authority?

44. In a state of nature man is generally good, but self-interested The laws of nature rule, but many disagree with what they mean Men join and unite for their comfortable, safe and peaceful living with each other in a secure enjoyment of their property and a greater security against those not in the contract. Why does man enter into a society?

45. Supreme power of the commonwealth sacred and unalterable Yet not arbitrary Limited to the public good Not conflict with the laws of nature What is legislative power?

46. To declare openly what liberties men are losing Otherwise uncertainty stills exists When men change, the law adapts Why should laws be established and how varied?

47. When it fails to protect Did Locke believe in "divine right of kings?" NO!!! #1 reason for government is the preservation of property rights How and when should governments be dissolved?

48. Should a robber break into my house, and, with a dagger at my throat, make me seal deeds to convey my estate to him, would this give him any title? Just such a title by his sword has an unjust conqueror who forces me into submission. The injury and the crime is equal, whether committed by the wearer of a crown or some petty villain. John Locke Second Treatise of Civil Government [1690]

49. Charles de Montesquieu (1689-1755) Expanded on Locke Three forms of government Republican Aristocracy Democracy Monarchial Despotic In a republic, education an absolute necessity Democracies are corrupted, and devolve to despotism or at best a monarchy A fair and objective judiciary essential to health of democracy The Spirit of Laws (1748)

50. Types of government: republic based on virtue monarchy based on honor dictatorship based on fear democracy will aim at equality Montesquieu (1689-1755)