Political Theory To 1789

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Political Theory To 1789

• Roots of Conservatism

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I. The Ancient Politics of Virtue Plato vs.
Aristotle

• Platos Republic (360 BCE)
• Question What is justice?
• Method dialectic mishmash of analogies,
  stories, wordplay in dialogue form. Goal is to
  identify pure truth through reason alone.
• Answer two types of justice
• Individual justice rationality ruling over our
  appetites and emotional attachments (spirit)
• Social justice rational parts (i.e.
  philosophers) ruling over appetites (workers) and
  spirit (warriors)
• Answer is naturalistic (virtues are discovered
  out there, not created by us) and agent-based
  (people, not actions, are described as just or
  unjust)

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4. Politics of Platos Republic

• What is good government?
• Just government by rational thinkers over those
  driven by their appetites, to make the people
  better through education, protection, and
  management of daily life
• Tools of governance Military force and the
  noble lie (propaganda)
• Ideal polity autocratic rule by the
  intellectual elite (philosopher-king) in order to
  avoid any social conflict

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b. How can we keep leaders from doing the wrong
thing?

• There is no check on leaders in Platos world.
  Implied answer We must select the right ones and
  give them the power to effect real change.
• In other words, Plato favors rule by a person to
  the rule of law.

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c. What are the duties of a good citizen?

• Duties depend on ones abilities and role in
  life. One should do what one is best suited to
  do, and above all one should create value for
  society. Knowing ones place and fulfilling
  ones function to the rest of society are the
  paths to both contentment and the good society.

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B. Aristotles Politics (350 BCE)

• Question What is the best regime?
• Method Inductive reasoning from many examples
  find empirical patterns and thereby identify
  natural laws.
• Answer Elective aristocracy by well-educated,
  prosperous slave-owners.
• Answer is also naturalistic (everything has a
  natural purpose, which is its only proper
  purpose) and agent-centered (be a virtuous person
  or a virtuous city the doing will naturally
  follow)

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4. The Politics of Aristotles Politics

• a. What is good government? Government adapted to
  the people, with polity as the best for free
  people and/or aristocracy when people are very
  unequal in many respects. Government should try
  to develop better citizens and virtuous people,
  but it should also leave household matters to the
  household, for the household is different from
  the city-state.

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b. How do we keep leaders from doing the wrong
thing?

• All men of virtue must be given real
  participatory power, with the ability to stop
  tyranny, oligarchy, or mob rule.
• Note that tyranny is bad because it has a bad
  character, not because it infringes on rights
  or does bad things

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c. What are the duties of a good citizen?

• Duty is less important than inclination. One
  with virtue wont see his civic duty as a duty at
  all, but a natural part of life from which he
  finds fulfillment.
• A good citizen will participate in politics
  (ruling and being ruled in turn) to better the
  city-state, and should follow the leadership of
  those with greater wisdom or virtue while
  exercising leadership over those of lesser wisdom
  or virtue.
• Citizens should give for the common good and
  serve in the military to defend the common good.

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C. Plato vs. Aristotle as Sources of Modern
Conservative Thought

• Disagreements
• Method Should we try to reason our way to truth
  (Plato) or use our senses to observe whats
  really true (Aristotle)?
• Is it more important to have good institutions
  (the rule of law) or a virtuous leader (the rule
  of man)? Plato people / Aristotle law
• Pure principles vs. compromise Plato purity
  and radical change (neo-conservatism), Aristotle
  find the mean and incrementally change
  (traditionalist conservatism).
• Both favor
• Agent-centered, naturalistic morality -- we
  should think of ourselves as parts of an organic
  whole and find happiness in being virtuous and
  living in a well-ordered society
• Natural hierarchy Some people are more virtuous
  than others these should hold authority and
  teach the rest

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3. Both reject modern values

• Against atomistic individualism Humans are
  naturally social, and communities, not
  individuals, are the proper units of political
  analysis. No room for concepts like privacy
  unless they promote virtue.
• Against egalitarianism People are not naturally
  equal in morally relevant ways
• Against unnatural behavior Whether personal,
  sexual, religious, or economic. Everything has a
  perfect form or purpose, and deviation is wrong
  in and of itself.

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II. The Middle Ages Adaptation of the Ancients
to Christianity

• Augustines City of God (426)
• Question What should a Christian society look
  like?
• Method Using Platonic philosophy and historical
  comparison to refute arguments for The City of
  Man by worldly Christians and pagan beliefs.
• Answer Christians should aim at the City of God,
  a religious way of life rather than a perfect
  political system. Religious purity is more
  important than political feasibility.
• Morality still naturalistic (stems from Creator)
  and agent-centered (state of the soul, not
  political actions, defines a good person)

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4. Augustinian (Anti-)Politics

• What is good government? All non-Christian
  polities are doomed to die in body and soul. The
  City of Man produces war.
• How do we keep leaders from doing the wrong
  thing? Teach them to be good Christians. In the
  end, Christians are not of this world and will
  find peace in the City of God.
• What are the duties of a good citizen? Study
  what is good in order to come to know God and
  follow divine law.

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B. Thomas Aquinas (1273)

• Question How should reasonable Christians
  design their polities?
• Method Aristotelian logic Make assumptions and
  deduce the conclusions.
• Answer Loving thy neighbor means forming
  harmonious political communities guided by
  virtue.
• Answer is still guided by naturalism (Gods will)
  and agent-centered morality (love as an emotion).

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4. The Politics of Aquinas

• What is good government? Government for the
  common good, with political autonomy for the
  household and the Church. Leave promotion of
  personal virtue to the Church (unlike Aristotle)
  and focus on protecting citizens from each other.

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b. How do we keep leaders from doing the wrong
thing?

• Morality and moral laws bind leaders, who may
  justly be deposed if they violate it. The Church
  cannot release people from political bonds by an
  act of will, but it can tell citizens that the
  leader is transgressing moral law.

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c. What are the duties of a good citizen?

• Obey the laws of the state in matters of
  governance and also obey the laws of the
  universal (Catholic) Church in matters of
  personal virtue. Develop personal virtue and
  reason to the highest degree possible.

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C. Medieval Influences on Modern Conservatism

• Disagreement Whether Christians are to
  participate in political and material life
  (Aquinas) or withdraw from it (Thomas). Echoes
  divide between evangelical and non-evangelical
  traditionalists in the last century
• Agreement Gods law takes precedence over the
  state or even the good of the community.
  Legitimacy through religious belief, not secular
  talents.

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III. Early Modern Philosophy The Rejection of
Traditionalist Virtues

• Niccolò Machiavelli (1513) A rebuttal to the
  politics of virtue
• Question How do great leaders actually behave?
• Method advice manual with historical examples
• Answer they ignore moral law and the Church,
  relying on power and fear to gain security
• Answer pits naturalism against agent-centered
  morality good people dont win and cant defend
  their homelands.

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4. Machiavellian Politics

• What is good government? Be stingy but effective
  in everything necessary war, diplomacy, and
  justice. Good government is limited government,
  refraining from confiscation or lawless violence
  it is based on the rule of law rather than the
  rule of man.
• How do we keep leaders from doing the wrong
  thing? Give them good advice and let them defend
  the state as they see fit.
• What are the duties of a good citizen? No
  conspiracies or mob rule. Factionalism weakens
  the state.

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B. Thomas More Revisits Utopia (1516)

• Question What would a perfect polity look like?
• Method Storytelling with explanation.
• Answer Democratic, orderly communism
• Answer is silent on naturalism (these may be new,
  improved values created by humans) but retains
  focus on agent-centered morality (good people key
  to good society)

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4. The Politics of Mores Utopia

• What is good governance? Government by the most
  highly educated, who will teach the others.
  Criminals become slaves to aid others, weighed
  down by chains of gold (!) Work is compulsory,
  but health care and other essentials are free
  from the government.

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b. How can we keep leaders from doing the wrong
thing?

• Leadership is democratic, although the people
  choose the best-educated and smartest people to
  lead them. Government has little real power over
  everyday life because citizens are virtuous.

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c. What are the duties of a good citizen?

• Good citizens share everything with each other,
  eagerly work for the common good, and try to
  learn as much as possible.

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IV. Social Contract Theory Rights-Based
Conservatism

• Thomas Hobbes and Leviathan
• Question When should we obey authority?
• Method Transform empirical patterns into
  normative rules of behavior. Compare state of
  nature (anarchy life nasty, poor, brutish,
  solitary, and short) to government (social
  contract between people to create a covenant with
  a sovereign powerful enough to protect us from
  each other)
• Answer Obey while government has any chance of
  protecting you
• Answer rejects naturalism (nothing is right or
  wrong in a state of nature). Goal is to overcome
  nature with binding laws (which determine right
  and wrong) not to emulate it. Act-centered
  morality clearly expressed (rights, duties, and
  consequences).

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4. The Politics of Hobbess Leviathan

• What is good government? A strong absolute
  monarchy that preserves peace and grows the
  commonwealth. The monarch should be aware of
  Natural Law and educate the people to revere duty
  to parents and the state not because these
  things are good in their own right, but because
  they are important for stability.

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b. How can we keep leaders from doing the wrong
thing?

• We cannot because they have power and we
  shouldnt because we should honor our contract
  with each other to keep the covenant with the
  sovereign. By definition, a leader can do no
  wrong to the people since he/she owes us nothing
  while we owe them utter obedience, and since
  he/she is the embodiment of all our interests and
  desires. (Rule of man, not law)

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c. What are the duties of a good citizen?

• Obey the sovereign, the civil law, and the law of
  nature in that order. Do not presume to debate
  the wisdom of the sovereign, although you should
  identify shortcomings of his underlings if he so
  allows. Defend the sovereign in war as you are
  defended in peace.
• Hobbes does allow for rights! (Only one right
  to preserve your own life). Hobbes birth of
  atomistic individualism in political philosophy.

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d. Statist Realism A new kind of conservatism

• Humans are inherently selfish and violent the
  closer to a state of nature they are, the more
  violent they are (fear of pre-modern societies
  such as tribes)
• Need for social control to protect us from each
  other and foreign powers
• Moral duty to fellow citizens to obey laws and
  authority
• State must be able to limit some individual
  rights to preserve citizens right to life
• Note the rejection of traditionalist morality
  Leaders may need to be Machiavellian to defend
  their citizens in Hobbess world

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B. John Lockes Classical Liberalism and
Libertarian Thought

• Question When is rebellion justified?
• Method Identify rights held in state of nature
  and compare those to rights held under existing
  government.
• Answer rebellion is justified when government
  violates our natural rights.
• Ethics are clearly act-based (wrong to violate
  someones rights). Nature is to be improved upon
  rather than rejected.

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4. The Politics of John Lockes Second Treatise
on Government

• What is good government? Limited government by
  majority rule to protect property rights
  (including rights to our own bodies, which are
  just another type of property right). Rule of
  law, not rule of man.

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b. How do we keep leaders from doing the wrong
thing?

• Divide up authority to make it difficult for
  anyone to ignore the laws and create only as much
  government as we need for life, liberty, and
  estate and no more (i.e. no permanent
  legislature).
• We should ensure that the majority has the
  ability to express its consent from generation to
  generation (also elections)
• Overthrow our government when it threatens our
  natural, God-given rights.

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c. What are the duties of a good citizen?

• The good citizen respects the rights of others
  and seeks to further his or her own familys
  welfare through labor.
• The good citizen must also defend the
  commonwealth from external enemies and
  participate in monitoring and checking any abuses
  of the government.
• Sometimes, being a good citizen means resisting
  the government when it has been usurped or
  transformed into tyranny.

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d. Locke and Libertarianism

• Locke himself believed in natural limits to
  property rights (do not waste or leave land
  undeveloped, do not own land in common, pay your
  taxes)
• Modern libertarian conservatives reject the
  naturalist part of Locke in favor of strong
  property rights (anything legitimately acquired
  is legitimately owned, regardless of how it is
  (not) used). More consistent than Locke
• Key assumption Society does not provide property
  rights, but merely guarantees the legitimate
  private ownership that would exist in nature

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C. Rousseaus Romantic Nationalism

• Question How can we make the chains of
  government more legitimate?
• Method Imagine a state of nature and how it
  could have become a state of government.
  Different peoples have different natures at
  different times.
• Answer Govern by the general will of the
  people.
• Answer rejects naturalism as being value-free
  (human nature can produce good or bad, depending
  on environment and culture), but retains notion
  of agent-based morality

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4. The Politics of Rousseaus Social Contract

• What is good government? Legitimate use of power
  by the people (popular sovereignty). The state
  should be supremely powerful but since we are
  ruling ourselves there is no threat to our
  liberty. We gave up natural rights, but we have
  gained civil rights in exchange. Government must
  be adapted to the nature of the people (i.e.
  nationalist government).

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b. How can we keep leaders from doing the wrong
thing?

• The key is to have popular assemblies to ensure
  that the government never usurps the legitimate
  sovereign authority from the people.
• In addition, power should be divided between the
  sovereign (people), government (executive) and
  magistrates.
• Note that government is not to be limited in
  power, but rather harnessed to the general will.
  Rousseau denies individual rights even a right
  to life. All civil rights are given by society
  and subject to amendment or revocation for the
  good of the people.

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c. What are the duties of a good citizen?

• Participate in politics at the local level, aim
  at the common good rather than ones own
  interests, and listen to the advice of neutral
  outsiders (the lawgiver) on how best to
  organize society.
• Try to make ourselves into better people through
  deliberation and following the general will
  (human nature can be reshaped by institutions).

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d. Was Rousseau liberal?

• Yes Emphasized popular society and the complete
  supremacy of people over government.
• No Emphasized community over individuals,
  national prejudices.
• Neo-conservatives combined Platos idea of the
  noble lie and Machiavellian methods (means)
  with the Rousseau-like objective (ends) of making
  people better through good law (democratization
  in the Middle East). Goal save freedom from
  excess individual rights.

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V. Key Problems for modern political philosophy

• The problem of ethical standards (first part of
  course)
• Traditionalists accept agent-based moral
  theories, but what do these have to tell us about
  specific policies?
• Conservatives (statist realists, libertarians,
  neo-realists) accept act-based moral theories
  but how do we know which acts are good and which
  are bad?

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3. Moral inconsistency before 1789

• Example Hobbes on honoring the social contract
• Hobbes says breaking it leads to anarchy, which
  is a practical death sentence (consequences
  determine morality)
• Hobbes also says that breaking a contract is a
  form of contradiction, and therefore irrational
  (nature of the act determines morality)
• Problem What should we do if contradiction
  (lying, breaking a contract, etc) leads to good
  consequences? Which standard is more important.
• Problem is common Plato/Aristotle say virtue is
  good in itself, good for you, and good for
  society. What if one of these statements is
  false but the others are true? How should one
  choose?

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4. Why do we care?

• Most interesting political disputes involve
  conflicts between values liberty vs. equality,
  good ends vs. unpleasant means, good intentions
  vs. bad consequences, etc.
• Examples
• Should we torture suspected terrorists to extract
  information?
• Should we threaten to destroy cities full of
  innocent civilians in order to protect our own
  innocent civilians?
• Should we execute people if doing so fails to
  deter crime?
• Should we respect property rights if property
  owners want to discriminate against other races?
• Is it OK for the US government to lie to its
  citizens about whether it is testing biological
  weapons?
• If gays want to marry, how to we know how to
  respond?

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B. Questions About Liberalism (middle part of
course)

• Are political rights more deserving of protection
  than property rights?
• Does the greatest danger to liberty come from
  government power or discrimination by our fellow
  citizens?
• How can democratic self-government be reconciled
  with the rights of economic, racial, or religious
  minorities?
• Does a community owe duties to individuals? How
  might social welfare be justified?
• Should government work to ensure equal
  opportunities and not merely equal rights --
  for all citizens?

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C. Radical Challenges to Liberalism (last part of
the course)

• Marxism Why not just abolish private property in
  the name of equality? Is liberalism just a front
  to save capitalism?
• Libertarianism Why not just abolish the state
  or restrict it to defense and enforcement of
  contracts?
• Feminism Does liberalism marginalize women and
  their work?