Poli 64

1
Poli 64 Modern Political Thought
TURN YOUR PHONE OFF!
October 25 1983 United States invades Grenada P
resident 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 yo
ur human natureand 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 s
ubjects -- 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 ones 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 reco
gnized.
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-recipro
cal
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,
conventions presuppose reciprocity,
but social inequalities are non-reciprocal.
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
10
(No Transcript)