Exam: History of Ideas Final
16-12-2013
This essay deals with the concept of political power based on the ideas of Machiavelli, Hobbes and
Montesquieu. Throughout this paper I will argue that political power is constituted in different forms of government based on the perception of human nature, and that political power is closely related to the concept of fear. This is to say that political power converts into different societies based on the nature of political power which arises due to a social contract. This will be done by an individual evaluation of the three concepts in order to outline the concepts of political power of Machiavelli, Hobbes and
Montesquieu respectively. Second, I will analyze the differences of the three concepts with a special focus on the nature of political power – how does it arise and how is it legitimized. Finally, I seek to identify spheres of Western Society in which the analyzed concepts are applied, or to which they have contributed. This is done by one concrete example: The contemporary debate on public surveillance is applied to especially Hobbes’ intention to create a social contract based on security.
Machiavelli created a concept of political power with the single goal to advise princes on how to maintain power. Power is in this case the ability to enforce obedience to the ruler’s will. According to Machiavelli this can be done in many ways. However, in order to maintain power in the long run it is essential to act in a way that maximizes certainty. It follows that, although human behavior can take many forms, the only reliable means to obedience is fear. Love, it is argued, is inappropriate since it is by its very nature unstable. Fear on the other hand will always work since it is stable. It becomes thus the goal to create a feeling of fear amongst the newly conquered territory. In order to do so the prince must identify the four groups, which everybody in society will be subject to. These are the ones that have been loyal to the old prince, the ones that have been loyal to the new prince from the very start, the ones who are not exactly in favor of the new prince but who acquiesce his rule and, finally, the people at large. Having identified these groups and there corresponding fears and expectations, the guiding principles in order to maintain power are straightforward: First and most importantly, the prince has to do the exact opposite of what is expected of him. This will make his actions unpredictable to his subjects, create fear among them who expected it the least and thereby create acceptance among the people at large. Second, the prince has to
‘kill quickly and reward gradually’(Compendium, Machiavelli, page 160). All action of the prince is assumed to be what Weber would call purposive rational; his actions are a means to achieve a certain goal. This goal is to make himself the legitimate leader and to enforce obedience in the most secure and efficient way. It is thus argued by Machiavelli that the prince’s new subjects are to be seen as a long term
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Exam: History of Ideas Final 16-12-2013 investment. The Machiavellian concept of power can be summarized as an opportunistic behavior by the prince to do whatever it takes to maintain power. Avoidance of tyranny is preferable for the only reason that it would not serve his purpose.
Greatly influenced by the political conflicts of his time, Hobbes intended to create a theoretical framework that would provide stability and security at the expense of individual freedom by the means of a social contract. He notes that all men are born equal and, in the absence of a government, would be in the so-called ‘State of Nature’. His starting point is thus a society in which no positive law exists, cooperation would be impossible and men would live in a constant state of fear:
In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain:and consequently no Culture of the Earth, no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building, no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continual feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short.” (Compendium, Hobbes, page 194)
He assumes men to be ration egoists. And by the individual rationality it becomes clear to everyone that the State of nature has to be overcome in order to secure life and property. However, the dilemma is, according to Hobbes, that it would be irrational to be the first to give up the individual freedom provided by the state of nature, as long as the others do not: the creation of a social contract gives rise to a collective action problem, since everybody would want to be in a situation in which everybody but himself would be part of the social contract. It follows that the social contract would transform all power to a single person, an absolute sovereign, in order to overcome the collective action problem. In this way political power is established. It is exercised by a single sovereign with absolute power. Consequently everybody leaves the state of nature and civil society is created. The sovereign, however, is not part of the contract and stays in the state of nature. He can thus not subject to the law that he makes and can act against other non contracting parties as the state of nature allows him (i.e. destroy everyone that limits his security).
The governments single responsibility is thus to create a legal framework that guarantees security of life and property. This enables the subjects of the social contract to live in peace at the expense of all individual freedom. It is important to note the materialist significance of this concept; men is by nature equal and without any ‘intrinsic’ knowledge. Everything he becomes is a product of the outside world. In
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Exam: History of Ideas Final 16-12-2013
Locke’s terms mind is a product of ‘sensations’. It follows, that mankind is a product of its materialistic surroundings. This lays the basis for Hobbes’ argument of security; only if the security of life and property (i.e. the material world) is guaranteed by law, civil society will be possible. Consequently, men have no free will. Everything else is subordinated to this security and this is why an absolute sovereign is legitimized.
Unlike Hobbes, Montesquieu develops a concept of political power that provides for the separation of powers. His starting point in his famous book ‘The Spirit of the Laws’ is based on the assumption of human nature that mankind is not only the product of the inherently egoistical behavior as it is laid out by
Hobbes. Although he does not reject egoistic behavior altogether he adds that a spirit of virtue is a natural condition to human life. This notion alters his entire concept and makes it very different from that of
Hobbes. The concept of virtue relates to a certain commitment of the individual to society. Although the individual is self-interested in its essence, the notion of moral and commitment to society takes all legitimacy from the absolute leader in the Hobbesian sense. Montesquieu distinguished between three types of government: republican, monarchial, despotic. It has to be emphasized that he feared despotic regimes above all else. However, to each form of government he attributes distinct forms of legitimacy, guiding principles and so-called corrupters. By corrupters Montesquieu refers to developments that corrupt the guiding principles of a government and thereby cause its decline. He advocates a mixed form of government, which combines elements of monarchy, democracy and aristocracy.
Despotic regimes are based on fear as the guiding principle and it is associated with an absolute leader with all powers in his hands. This is for Montesquieu the worst form of government and it can only be overcome when the guiding principle can be corrupted (i.e. the fear of each other becomes stronger than the fear of the sovereign). A monarchy on the other hand is constituted by a government in which the prince holds civil and political power in his hands. The jurisdictional branch has to be independent. A monarchy is based on the principle of honor, which links all subjects to the sovereign. If everybody strives for honor, the general interest is advanced in the interest of the ruler. It provides stability and predictability.
Finally, Montesquieu considers the republican government. This, he argues, can take two different forms: democratic and aristocratic. In a democracy, constituted by the rule by the body of people, the guiding principle is virtue. If this is corrupted, self-interest prevails and the democratic rule cannot be exercised.
According to Montesquieu, the principle of democratic governments can be corrupted in two ways:
Firstly, if the spirit of equality is absent. This will cause the power to rest in the hands of only a few
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Exam: History of Ideas Final 16-12-2013 people (i.e. aristocracy) or in the hands of a single person (i.e. monarchy). Secondly, the principle of democracy can be corrupted if the equality becomes predominant. This will lead to a state in which no power can be exercised whatsoever. It is thus the responsibility of the democratic government to manage equality in a just way. In an aristocracy power is exercised by the few. Their rule relies partly on the notion of virtue but more importantly Montesquieu points to the concept of moderation, which implies that the ruling nobility has to restrain itself by making themselves subject to the law.
In the ideal form of government, which is constituted by a form of constitutional monarchy, supported by two legislative chambers, Montesquieu tries to combine the different principles of government. Thereby, virtue, honor and moderation provide for a stable society, in which security is guaranteed, the law is enforced independently of the monarch, the actions of government are predictable, and the democratic legislative chamber provides a check on the rulers. This concept is assumed to create a society, in which political power is not created by fear but by reason.
The very nature of governments in the preceding conceptual frameworks implies a certain purpose of government. In the case of Machiavelli this is the pure interest of the prince to establish his own legitimacy in order to make use of his new subjects as he pleases. It is the concept of political power as a means to obedience. This implies that the ruler acts very differently towards his subjects as he would in a non-political scene. Machiavelli does not argue that the behavior is based on the human nature of society at large. He emphasizes that all types of behavior are possible in society. Some are very good by nature and others are bad. Both types constitute extremes and are however very rare. The rational prince, who only wants to advance his own interest, should therefore always assume the worst of everyone. This might not be correct in every case but it will never be to his disadvantage. This behavior is necessary for the prince because he deals with society at large. Would he instead deal with individuals in a non-political scene, his behavior would be different: he would not have to fear for his own life and would not have to create a state of fear simply because it would not be in his interest. It can thus be argued that politics, and thereby political power, are a game played in its own sphere due to the human nature of self-interested individuals. What Machiavelli really is saying, is that human nature perceived as the rational egoist who advances his own interest on the cost of others, will lead to despotic rule, because the ruler, being an rational egoist himself, is forced to think the worst of his subjects in order to ensure his own security.
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Exam: History of Ideas Final 16-12-2013
It is therefore not surprising that longing for security is the only reason to establish civil society in the first place. As Hobbes argues, in the absence of a government, men will live in the state of nature. The state of nature is the locus of freedom. But men, being rational egoists, will make the state of nature to a place which is undesirable for everyone. Therefore, the human nature of self-interest as it is assumed by
Hobbes provides the rational basis for a government. Where the absence of trust prevents civil society from raising in the first place, government must, as soon as the social contract is signed, overcome the problem of collective action by the making and enforcement of law. This creates the very basis of civil society. Given the materialist view that Hobbes advocates, the existence of law, which provides security of life and property, will enable society to develop. The materialist view states that the mind is shaped by the outside world and by nothing else. The introduction of laws allows the outside world to develop due to the certainty that law creates. The development of the outside world provides therefore the basis for the development of human kind. It is thus logical that Hobbes prioritizes the rule of law to individual freedom, since the mind is subordinate to material surroundings. Similar to Machiavelli, the Hobbesian state is characterized by an absolute leader who is not subject to the law himself; the regime is despotic.
And it is so by human nature according to Hobbes. The reason is similar to Machiavelli; the ruler must have the sole power in his hands in order to be able to enforce the desired behavior by the contracting subjects. The difference is that the desired behavior is security of society at large rather than security of the ruler.
Montesquieu alters the assumption of the rational egotist by the introduction of principles of government.
In this case, government is based on a certain principle (virtue, honor, fear) which supplements the human nature of self-interest. This provides the basis for his ideal form of government in which powers are separated. The assumption of Montesquieu is thus that humans might be self-interested in nature but the government can supplement this behavior by the introduction of principles. The degree of individual freedom, which is determined by the form of government, is thus a function of the complexity of the guiding principles. Despotic regimes use the concept of fear, whereas democracies have to develop a sense of virtue among the people. Virtue is by all standards more complex to achieve than fear and it can thus be corrupted more easily than the principle of fear. It follows that democracies in their nature are less stable than despotic regimes in the sense of Hobbes and Machiavelli. The reward is a relatively high degree of individual freedom in a secure society. Therefore, legitimacy is created through individual freedom, taking security of life as granted.
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Exam: History of Ideas Final
16-12-2013
The public surveillance as it is conducted by leading Western countries in the name of security is theoretically rooted in Hobbes’ state of nature. Hobbes argues for security as the prime principle of government:
“Government is a regular system of law-making and law-enforcement” compendium, Hobbes, page 193
Given that government is established in the first place to provide security, individual freedom is subordinate to security. If we follow Hobbes and assume man to be a rational egoist, public surveillance is not only legitimate but absolutely necessary. It is the fundamental condition to enforce the law. It follows, the better and the more sophisticated obedience to the law can be followed, the more is the state obliged to do so. Individual rights are no more than a temporal permission by the sovereign based on the maintenance of security. As soon as security for life and property is threatened, individual rights have to be restricted or even abolished altogether. Civil society has no reason to protest since it is in their deepest interest to maintain the social contract and not to go back to the state of nature.
This paper has argued that the concept of human nature as it applies to the theoretical framework of
Hobbes and Machiavelli has caused despotic regimes. The notion of the rational egoist who only advances his self-interest has created the basis and legitimacy of a civil society which is ruled by a despotic leader. Rational egoists perceive others as potential competitors and enemies since they know that the other is as much a rational egoists as he is himself. This concept is laid out in Hobbes’ state of nature. Therefore fear is to be overcome in order to create a civil society and this is done by contract. If fear is outweighed by law and certainty, mankind can develop freely due to the materialist view of
Hobbes and Machiavelli. Therefore, fear creates the basis for a legitimate despotic leader, and fear is based on the human nature of rational egoists. Montesquieu on the other hand eases the notion of the rational egoist by applying leading principles to different forms of government. The guiding principles are supposed to counterbalance the self-interest in society in order to achieve legitimacy through a desired behavior by the ruled. The principles are therefore the basis of government rather than human nature itself; the rational egoist exists in every form of government. Similar to Hobbes and Machiavelli the guiding principle for a despotic regime is fear. However, more complex principles such as honor and virtue provide a basis for a society that provides for security without abolishing individual freedom to
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Exam: History of Ideas Final 16-12-2013 the same degree as it is done in despotic regimes. Therefore, fear paves the way for despotism, and virtue, achieved by education, provides the basis for individual freedom in combination with safety.
Further, the contemporary public surveillance program as it is conducted by Western governments in the name of security is rooted in Hobbes theoretical framework of political power. It is a manifestation of the superiority of security relative to individual freedom, which was the basis to establish a government in the first place.
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