American Government
Introductory Lecture
Three Fundamental Concepts
 Liberalism
 Representation
 Democracy
What is Liberalism?
 Liberalism as classically defined differs
significantly from the modern American usage
 It is a philosophy of social order that emerged in
17th and 18th century Europe
 Fundamentally it means
– a toleration of diversity
– a recognition of the primacy of individual rights
– a social agreement establishing a zone of individual
privacy
Key Assumptions of Liberalism
 Assumes individuals are best situated to
determine what is best for themselves
 Assumes that a variety of behaviors, even
conflicting ones, are legitimate
 Assumes that strong government interferes
with the ability of individuals to engage in
those behaviors
 And thus concludes government should be
limited
What is Representation?
 Representation is a type of government
premised on liberalism
 Diverse elements are represented in society
 Representation is the form of government
for the United States
 The U.S. government is made up of
representatives – distinguished from a direct
democracy where the government is made
up of all citizens
What is Democracy?
 Democracy, unlike liberalism and representation,
is an old word
 Greek Roots:
– Demos “The People”
– Kratia “Rule”
 Ancient Greeks used term as early as 400 B.C.
 IMPORTANT: in a democracy, the people rule as
the government and thus the government
embodies the people
Representation vs. Democracy
 Representation is a relatively young word
 Differs from ‘democracy’ as the Greeks
defined in significant ways:
– Citizens do not make laws directly
– A representative does not ‘embody’ the people
but rather re-presents their preferences in
government
– Hinges on the assumption that there are a
diversity of legitimate interests in society
Rep v. Demo 2
 The Greeks would not have accepted
representation as a good form of
government
– It is based in selfishness: the desire to further
individual interests
– Government, according to the Greeks, was to
benefit the whole
– See Aristotle, Plato and Spock from Star Trek
Path from Greek Democracy to
Liberal Representative Government
 How did the Greek concept of democracy
evolve into the modern concept of
representation?
 The story begins with Athens, Greece circa
400B.C.
 Fundamentally, Greeks believe in a natural
order to the world
 This is a highly normative assessment –
how it should be rather than how it is
The Path Continued
 The Greeks believed that:
– Man was fundamentally a political animal (politikon
zoon)
– As such, his natural habitat is the city – not as a noble
savage in the wilderness but a functioning citizen of a
civil society
– The basic political question for the Greeks: how ought
man order his life in the city to be fully human (selfactualized, in modern terminology)
– Answer: unselfish participatory government where all
work for the common good of society – as a whole.
Philosophers on Good Government
 Aristotle - a good citizen can exist only as part of
the state/society.
“He who is unable to live in society, or who has no
need because he is sufficient for himself, must be
either a beast or a god.”
 Aristotle – good government is best accomplished
when rule is by the middle (“golden mean”)
“The most perfect political community is one in which
the middle class is in control, and outnumbers
both of the other classes.”
Philosophers Continued
 Plato – a good political order produces “good
natures; and these useful natures, who are in turn
well educated, grow up even better than their
predecessors”
 Plato – human morality is closely linked with the
good society:
“Man and city are alike – Humans without souls
are hollow. Cities without virtue are rotten.”
 Spock: “The needs of the many outweigh the
needs of the few or the one.”
Philosophers Continued
 Ideally, for Plato government involved a form
of communism (with property communallyowned) and for Aristotle a government by
the enlightened and moderate middle class.
 In practice, both called for a government of
active citizens who shared the responsibility
for governing.
Distinguishing Representation
from Democracy
 Important: In Greek democracy, there is no
explicit representation of interests.
 Both Plato and Aristotle advocated moderation,
virtuousness, and justice as ideals for best
government. One ‘good’ citizen. One ‘good’
government.
 Government embodied the people – purpose to
protect and promote the common interest
 Factions were considered bad -- selfish
Did Democracy Work?
 Yes it did. Why?
 Small city-states with relatively homogenous
populations
 In Athens, citizens were:
–
–
–
–
Free
Native born
Property-owning
Qualified males
 As such, the citizenry was even more uniform than
the general population
On to Europe
 The Greek concept of good government
prevailed in Europe through much of the
Middle Ages
 Why? It was supported by:
– Divine Right of Kings
– Solidarity of the Catholic Church
– Large Armies
– Largely Ignorant and Uneducated Population
The Winds of Change
 The consensus on good government begins to break down
as the Dark Ages lifted around 1500 A.D.
 Why? The foundations of the Greek consensus were
crumbling –
– Society was becoming more diversified
– Economic order shifting as a result of the collapse of feudalism and
the adoption of a nascent capitalist system
– Primacy of the Catholic Church challenged by the emergence of
Protestantism
– The Knight is displaced as the Medieval ‘weapon of mass
destruction’ as gun powder changes the nature of warfare
– The printing press improves the education of the masses as well as
promoting the free flow of information
Out with the Old…
 As the Greek consensus collapses with an
increasing rejection of the divine rights of
the aristocracy and Church leadership, so to
the justification for states themselves is lost.
 A new intellectual basis for the foundation
and rationale of civil society was needed
Liberalism: The New Foundation
 Liberalism provided the new argument for
social order and civilized society within an
organized political structure
 One of liberalism’s earliest and most
important advocates was Thomas Hobbes
(1588-1679)
 Hobbes was an Englishman and critic of
Aristotle and his notions of the virtuous
citizen
Hobbes
 Hobbes had three important characteristics
that informed his political theory
– He was a materialist: he liked his property and
wanted to keep it
– He was a pessimist: he believed most men
were fundamentally evil
“The condition of man . . . is a condition of war of
everyone against everyone.”
– He was a coward: he spent much of his life on
the run from his enemies
Hobbes Continued
 Hobbes’ most famous work is Leviathan
 In it he attempts to accomplish his primary
theoretical goal: to justify the existence of an
authoritarian state as a guarantor of life and
property
 Thus a quandary for Hobbes, who viewed human
nature with great skepticism – man was animalistic
and driven by lusts and desires:
“…there is a general inclination of all mankind, a
perpetual and restless desire of power that
ceaseth only in death”
Hobbes Continued
 Hobbes’ Solution: The very evil nature of
man was the justification for an authoritarian
state
 Hobbes argued humans first existed in a
‘state of nature’ outside the bounds of civil
society
Hobbesian State of Nature
 In the State of Nature:
– man’s lusts and desires are unchecked
– there is no right to life or property
– there are no laws or rules – life is a state of perpetual
war of ‘all against all
 As such, life in the state of nature was as bad as it
gets.
“No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst
of all, continual fear and danger of violent death;
and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short”
Leviathan
 The horrors of the state of nature necessitated a
strong authoritarian government to check its
inherent anarchy and provide a mechanism for
justice where by life and property could be
protected
 Any government, no matter how despotic, was
better than the anarchy of the state of nature
 Government’s role
– Maintain peace and order
– Protect property
– Allow for the pursuit of desire within the bounds of law
Leviathan continued
 Problem: how do you get people in the
state of nature to agree to be ruled by this
authoritarian Leviathan?
 Answer: People had an incentive to leave
the state of nature: fear of death
 Mechanism: social contract
The Social Contract
 Independent individuals voluntarily contract to
leave the state of nature and form a civil society
 As such, they give up some of their natural rights
(to dispense personal justice, for example)
 But they gain the protection of Leviathan as to
their rights to life, liberty, and property.
 Hence the Greek concept of a natural government
is displaced with a government founded on the
consent of the governed.
 This introduces the concept of representation- the
government represents the authority of the people.
From Hobbes to Locke
 John Locke (1632-1704) provided the
intellectual bridge from Hobbes to the
American Revolution
 Locke’s political theory is similar to Hobbes:
– places man in state of nature
– life in the state of nature isn’t good
– man contracts his way out of the state of nature
and into civil society
Locke vs. Hobbes
 There is a critical difference between
Lockeian and Hobbesian philosophy.
 In the Lockeian State of Nature, man has
some rights that are respected (life, liberty,
and property).
 For Hobbes, there were no natural rights.
Rights were conferred by Leviathan. For
Locke, natural rights exist ex ante.
Limited Government
 Since the state of nature, while lacking a
mechanism for justice, is not the worst of all
possible worlds, Locke is not compelled to
justify any form of government.
 Locke thus argues for a limited government:
– Strong enough to protect natural rights
– But not so strong that it can abuse them
An Umpire
 For Locke, government is an umpire:
adjudicating disputes and dispensing justice.
 It does not represent the authority of the
people, as with Hobbes (the people retain
their authority in the Lockeian social
contract), but rather it represents their
diverse interests and protects their natural
rights.
Revolution
 Thus Locke provides an intellectual basis for
revolution.
 If a government abuses natural rights such
as life, liberty, and property then it forfeits its
right to exist. The state of nature becomes
preferable to that government.
 Thus revolution is justified in order to nulify
the social contract and reinstitute the natural
order.
Jefferson’s Declaration
 Jefferson was clearly inspired by Locke’s
argument:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all
men are created equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness; that, to secure these rights,
governments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the
governed; that whenever any form of government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right
of the people to alter or to abolish it...."