Political Theories
4. Lecture.
The 19. and 20..centuries
Liberalism, conservativism,
socialism
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The three most influential modern political ideologies, liberalism,
conservativism and socialism, have their roots in the late 18th century,
more precisely: in the French Revolution.
The three basic words of French Revolution could be linked to the
three main contemporary political ideologies: liberty (liberalism),
equality (socialism) and brotherhood (conservativism).
Liberalism has its emphasis on the individual rights. Conservativism on
the national tradition, the national linkage between a society and the
importance to maintain traditional institutions of a society. Socialism
(and left-wing ideologies) on the importance of solidarity in a society,
and the importance of helping the less fortunate members of a society.
Classical liberalism
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Influential figures of classical liberalism: John Locke, Adam Smith, Benjamin
Constant, John Stuart Mill.
Benjamin Constant (1767-1830) criticized Rousseau’s idea of collective
freedom of a people, („Freedom of the Ancients and Freedom of the
Moderns”). According to Constant Rousseau represented the classical,
antique conception of freedom. Once this conception had its own right. But
now the time passed beyond this conception.
In Constant’s opinion the collective freedom could be a source to oppress a
minority of a society. It cannot grant equal freedom and liberty to each
member of a society.
Therefore we must emphasize the individual freedom, such a conception of
freedom, which fixes a circle of private sphere and rights that cannot be
violated by the state under any circumstances. Such basic rights is the right of
free thought, free speech, of religious and scientific conscience, of the sanctity
of private property.
Economic freedom. Idea of the
Night Watchman State
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The representatives of classical liberalism thought that the individual knows
always better how to live with his own property than somebody else or the
state.
For this very reason the state must leave as much space for economic and
business as it is possible. The state economizes less efficiently with the
properties and goods of others than the individual private people do it
themselves.
For this very reason the classical liberal thinkers thought that the only task of
state concerning economic sphere is to grant the condition of equal and fair
economic competition. It is the picture of Night Watchman State.
Adam Smith’s paradigmatic concept: the „Invisible Hand”. The citizens
follow their own selfish interests like if they follow an invisible hand, and it is
beneficial for the entire society. The society develops due to the selfish nature
of man, because everybody is forced to take care his private property well.
Conservativism
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Main classical representatives: David Hume, Edmund Burke, Georg Wilhelm
Friedrich Hegel, Alexis de Tocqueville.
The institutions of a society passed the test of time, they are worthy enough
to be preserved. These institutions, the traditions of a particular society have
an intrinsic value.
Edmund Burke: The French Revolution demonstrates what horrific and
disastruous consequences could yield if a group of in a society tries to make
experiments with the society in question, and destructs the well-probed
institutions of the nation, and begin to transform the entire society following
their fancies of an ideal community, in a completely irresponsible way.
(„Reflexions On The Revolution in France”, 1792).
Conservativism means the radical rejection of any experimenting with the
society. If changes and reforms are unavoidable we must alter the structure of
society in very slow steps. We could never know what result could a particular
change yield on the long run in the life of a society. Our rationality is always
very limited.
Alexis de Tocqueville
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Tocqueville in his book „The American Democracy” warns to the dangers of
the majority principle also.
The majority principle that the majority of the society owns the political
legitimacy and the will of the majority is always just and legitimate.
Tocqueville showed that this conception could also result a form of tyranny
in a society, oppressing minorities in a country.
His book „The American Democracy” has a chapter „The Tyranny of the
Majority”, in which he make a detailed account concerning this danger.
In a small town during the Independency War in America, the journalists of
the town were very contra-war minded, while the vast majority of the same
town was pro-war minded. The majority in the town became very upset to
these journalists and lynched all of them.
A just society, concluded Tocqueville, must defend its minorities also.
Socialism
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Utopian socialism: Saint-Simon, Fourier, Robert Owen. It has its roots
in the French Enlightenment. A perfectly developed society must
eliminate every difference between man and man.
Communism: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels. The capitalism is not the
final stage of historical development. Under capitalist conditions of
productions men are alienated from: 1) each other (competition), from
2) the product of their work (the capitalist owns them), 3) their
productive force, their force to create (the capitalist owns it), 4) from
the nature (which is just a heap of exploitable sources, and loses all its
inherent beauty).
The aim of communism as a political movement is to eliminate this
alienation, that is to say: to humanize the society, to create a
completely just society without alienation.
Communism and social democracy
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The young Marx and Engels imagined this transformation of society
through a revolution of proletariat. The old Marx tended to accept the
rule of games of capitalist democracy. He became a founding father of
SPD, (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland), he became a founding
father of social democracy.
Thus the left-wing movements branched into two main directions in
the twentieth century: communism which maintained the moment of
necessity of revolution (e.g. Lenin, Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg), and
social democracy (e.g. Eduard Bernstein) which attempted to
effectuate of the needs and claims of working class through the means
of parliamentary democracy. The former was faster, the latter was
slower.
Eduard Bernstein: „The movement is everything the goal is nothing!”
Isiah Berlin and the two concepts of
liberty
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According to Berlin there were two basic concepts of liberty:
positive and negative.
Positive liberty: liberty to something. It referred to a positive
capacity to a positive right to something. E.g. the right to work.
Negative liberty: liberty from something. E.g. liberty from
oppression. It is a firmly determined sphere of individual rights
that can be violated under no circumstances.
Berlin thought that a political movement which set forth the
positive concept of liberty could possibly lead to an authoritarian
or even totalitarian society, to dictatorship, and the only
guarantee of democracy is the emphasis of negative liberty, is the
protection of such individual rights that cannot be ever violated.
John Rawls and the Theory of Justice
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Rawls is another classical political, liberal author
of the twentieth century. He tried to articulate
the idea of a just society on the basis of classical
contract theory.
His question was: which is the society whose
rules and norms of justice could be accepted for
every member of the particular community in
question?
The Veil of Ignorance in Rawls
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Rawls’ answer was that in order to have an answer to a question like this we
must first construct a theoretical starting position for the partners who are
going to set the rules and laws of social orders.
In this imaginary starting position no one knows what position, social
relationships, abilities and talents he will actually have in the society. Rawls
characterized this position with the term „The Veil of Ignorance”.
So nobody should actually know in this position whether he belongs to the
more or less fortunate layers of society – and s/he must accept a set of rules,
which grants him/her enough space to use his capacities and resources if s/he
is lucky, but which also helps him/her if s/he is not very lucky, and s/he has
average or even worse capacities, resources and social background.
The partner articulates and fixes the norms of a just society under the veil of
ignorance through a rational and impartial discourse.