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Poli 64 Modern Political Thought

Poli 64 Modern Political Thought. TURN YOUR PHONE OFF !. October 25 1983 United States invades Grenada

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Poli 64 Modern Political Thought

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  1. Poli 64 Modern Political Thought TURN YOUR PHONE OFF! October 25 1983 United States invades Grenada President Ronald Reagan, citing the threat posed to American nationals on the Caribbean nation of Grenada by that nation's Marxist regime, orders the Marines to invade and secure their safety. There were nearly 1,000 Americans in Grenada at the time, many of them students at the island's medical school. In little more than a week, Grenada's government was overthrown.

  2. Rousseau Jeopardy! Answer: What you will be forced to accept if you do not act in accordance with the General Will The question: What is FREEDOM?

  3. Rousseau Jeopardy! Answer: A government so perfect it is not suitable for human beings The question: What is DEMOCRACY?

  4. Sovereignty and government -- It is not laws, but the power to make laws, that is the “heart” of the state -- Government is not sovereignty; it is merely the executor of the sovereign will *Government mediates relations between private persons *The ideal government is a democracy -- Those making the law are in the best position to know how it should be interpreted and enforced -- But: *It is dangerous for those who make the law to execute it *Modern societies cannot be democracies Democracies must be small societies Democrats must be morally rigid Democracies must be radically egalitarian Democracies must be simple societies Democracies are subject to civil strife If you want freedom, you must have a democracy, and if you want a democracy, you must control your “human nature”and strive to be like “a god”

  5. The Challenge of Citizenship (or how to become a “legislator”) Individuals are both citizens – as members of the sovereign power and subjects -- as private persons in relation to the state The challenge for citizens: Private interest must never be allowed to subvert the public good The General Will – and the aim of laws -- must be liberty and equality --Natural inequalities are irrelevant -- Conventional inequalities must be “power-free” The difficulties of these ideals are no excuse for not trying to realize them Laws are not enough; vigilance is the cost of liberty and equality: Apathy is a sure sign of degeneracy Representative government is only good for citizens who are slaves to their interests The challenge of good citizenship is to become a “legislator”: A “moral” being Cognizant of human nature, but not swayed by it Dedicated to the common – not one’s own -- happiness Willing to forbear in claims to power or sovereignty

  6. The conditions of sovereignty Some fundamental features of the sovereign power: The body politic cannot exist without the security of all members The interest of each member as citizen is coextensive with the interest of the whole body Sovereignty is absolute; thus freedom requires participation in sovereign power The interests of individuals as citizens must always take precedence over their interests as private persons The will of the body politic is the interest of the whole public: 1. The General Will is inalienable The sovereign body politic can only represent itself 2. The General Will is indivisible No part or faction of the association can arrogate sovereignty 3. The General Will is never wrong Individuals may misunderstand what the public good requires 4. The General Will is impossible to discover; hence the need for “legislators” The influence of private interests, the limitations of human knowledge, the difficulties of unanticipated consequences, the contingencies of historical change, must be recognized. We must not assume that we are “free”; we can only be free by continuing to participate in the exercise of sovereign power

  7. Rousseau on the Social Contract (or, how to redeem the promise of society) Society makes it possible to realize our humanity Justification: equality and reciprocity Origins of society Reality: inequality for domination The challenge: turn force into right and obedience into duty -- Strength is unstable -- Slavery is non-reciprocal The conventions of reasonable consent 1. Total alienation of all rights to the community Effect: complete equality 2. Commitment to the public good: agree to be directed by the General Will 3. Participation in the exercise of sovereign power

  8. The paradox of society: “The vices that make social institutions necessary are the same ones that make their abuses inevitable.” The desire for domination is the vice that makes social institutions necessary – and the vice that makes the corruption of social institutions inevitable. But property also requires security, and this makes civil society possible Those with the most to lose must convince everyone else to respect property – and this they can do only by promising equality and reciprocity. Natural inequalities are moot, social inequalities are conventional, but social inequalities are non-reciprocal. conventions presuppose reciprocity, 1. Force is unstable: Power is secured by right, when obedience becomes duty No one would give up natural liberty just to be dominated; laws must serve all equally or they allow for the growth of corruption 2. Right is equal and reciprocal: 3. A good society is a society of equality and reciprocity

  9. The Classical and the Modern Political Ideals We can no longer enjoy the liberty of the ancients, which consisted in an active and constant participation in collective power. Our freedom must consist of peaceful enjoyment and private independence. The share which in antiquity everyone held in national sovereignty was by no means an abstract presumption as it is in our own day. The will of each individual had real influence: the exercise of this will was a vivid and repeated pleasure. Consequently the ancients were ready to make many a sacrifice to preserve their political rights and their share in the administration of the state. Everybody, feeling with pride all that his suffrage was worth, found in this awareness of his personal importance a great compensation. This compensation no longer exists for us today. Lost in the multitude, the individual can almost never perceive the influence he exercises. Never does his will impress itself upon the whole; nothing confirms in his eyes his own cooperation. The exercise of political rights, therefore, offers us but a part of the pleasures that the ancients found in it, while at the same time the progress of civilization, the commercial tendency of the age, the communication amongst peoples, have infinitely multiplied and varied the means of personal happiness. It follows that we must be far more attached than the ancients to our individual independence. For the ancients when they sacrificed that independence to their political rights, sacrificed less to obtain more; while in making the same sacrifice we would give more to obtain less. The aim of the ancients was the sharing of social power among the citizens of the same fatherland: this is what they called liberty. The aim of the moderns is the enjoyment of security in private pleasures; and they call liberty the guarantees accorded by institutions to these pleasures. Benjamin Constant, 1816

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