Western Political Thought: From Plato to Marx PDF
Preview Western Political Thought: From Plato to Marx
Western Political Thought This page is intentionally left blank Western Political Thought From Plato to Marx Shefali Jha Delhi • Chennai • Chandigarh Copyright © 2010, Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser and without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book. ISBN: 978-81-317-2747-8 First Impression Published by Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd., licensees of Pearson - Education in South Asia. Head Office: 7th Floor, Knowledge Boulevard, A-8 (A), Sector 62, NOIDA, 201 309, UP, India. Registered Office: 14 Local Shopping Centre, Panchsheel Park, - New Delhi 110 017, India Typeset by Digigrafics, Delhi. Printed in India at India Binding House. ConTenTs Preface vii Introduction 1 1. The Greek City-State: Democratic Institutions in Athens 13 2. Plato (427–347 BCE): Justice and Reason 26 3. Aristotle (384–322 BCE): Moral Action and the Best Constitution 49 4. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas: Christian Political Thought in the Middle Ages 71 5. Machiavelli (1469–1527): Humanism and Republicanism 86 6. Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679): Contract as the Basis of Political Obligation 103 7. John Locke (1632–1704): Theological Premises and Liberal Limits on Government 125 8. Rousseau (1712–1778): The General Will and Moral and Political Liberty 142 9. Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832): Representative Government as the Maximizer of Utility 162 10. John Stuart Mill (1806–1873): The Benefits of the Liberty of Men and Women for Society 179 11. G. W. F. Hegel (1770–1831): The Social Conditions for a Non-Contractual Theory of Freedom 198 12. Karl Marx (1818–1883): The State and Class Struggle 216 Afterword 232 About the Author 233 Index 234 This page is intentionally left blank PrefaCe The year 2009 began with a deluge of stories and analyses of the economic meltdown affecting almost each and every country in the world. News of shrinking economies, millions of jobs being lost, soaring unemployment rates, and governments trying dif- ferent measures to stimulate their economies dominated the media. This only highlighted the important role that govern- ments play in managing the welfare of their citizens. Why is it that in times of crisis we expect the government to bail us out, yet at other times, we want the government to stay out of our affairs? What does this assume about the relationship between us and the government? States, in order to ensure the welfare of their population, not only have to administer their own territories, but sometimes have to decide about intervening in the affairs of another coun- try. When the citizens of a country are accused of ‘terror strikes’ against the citizens of another country, can the government of the first country excuse itself by claiming these citizens to be non-state actors? Whether it is the case of what happened on 26 November 2008 in Mumbai, or on 11 September 2001 in New York, states are held accountable not only for the well-being of their citizens, but also for their actions. So states are not only to look after the welfare of their citizens, but also to exercise control over their population. Not only are they to control the actions of their citizens with respect to each other, but also with respect to other countries and other peoples. The twin governmental objec- tives of control and welfare are linked to one another. Without control, there will be no welfare, that is, control or disciplining by the state is always justified on the basis of its benefits or advantages for the members of the state. What happens, if, as it did happen in 2009, the head of a regime of a sovereign country is sought to be arrested by an viii Preface international body? When the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against the president of an independent country in early 2009, for crimes against his own people, demonstrations erupted in that country. Should not only the people of a country have a right to decide if its leaders have committed crimes against them? What if the people are so deeply divided that their government can act with impunity towards one section of them? We are back to the question of the relationship between people and their government or their state. It is clear that these political questions are not yet resolved, even though the institutions of the state and government have been with us for a long time. Long ago, in human history, groups of people organized themselves into political communities and states and governments emerged. To live subject to the rules made by those wielding political power now seems to be an inescapable part of our lives, but we continue to ask questions about the structures of political power in different societies. The significance of government and that of our relationships with each other in terms of power makes significant the activity of political thought, thinking systematically about these questions of politics. No wonder that we do have with us a long-standing tradition of thinking about political issues—a well-developed and rich tradition of political thought. It is a tradition that has often been mined for arguments in sup- port of, or against, alternative political arrangements. Many great thinkers are seen as part of this tradition because not only do they refer to one another in their work, but their writings are taken to have developed a common language for the discussion of political problems. Some of the thinkers belonging to this tradition of Western political thought do share a common spatial and temporal framework. Plato and Aristotle were, for instance, addressing political questions emerging from the practices of Greek city-states. Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau are seen as having created the social contract tradition in responding to similar changes taking place in their societies as the feudal world slowly transformed into an emerging modernity. Between the Greeks and the moderns, we look at examples of Christian political thought, as well as at Machiavelli. Our last four thinkers include two from the Utilitarian tradition, Bentham and Mill, and two German thinkers, Hegel and Marx; these thinkers are linked not only by belonging to similar schools of thought, but also by experiencing similar changes in their countries. But what is our justification for placing Aristotle and Marx, divided by so many centuries and analysing such different societies, in the same tradition of political thought? Not only does Marx refer to Aristotle in his writings, but many of his concepts show an Aristotelian influence. Finally, if we have agreed on the identity of this tradition of Western political thought, how do we link this tradition with our concerns today? Preface ix Many of the problems that we face today are understood as deriving from our political arrangements, and if these political arrangements could be understood more adequately, and modified or changed, we might be bet- ter off. The Western tradition of political thought may be just one tradition of political thought, but it is an important tradition. In addressing the political problems or concerns of their day, the thinkers belonging to this tradition, constructed the political subject with certain attributes—the attributes of reason and independence—and incorporated those human beings who apparently lacked these attributes differently into the state. The Western tradition of political thought developed a specific political theory of how rational and independent subjects were related to the state. When we look at how they used this theory to address their political issues, we become more self-conscious or reflexive about the terms in which we understand our own political investigations. That is why, in many parts of the world, including in India, one of the ways in which students of political science learn to think about political issues and about political ideas is by going through the works of Plato, for instance, or those of Rousseau or Marx. In their attempt to understand the ideas of these thinkers, students look for commentaries on their writings. This reader on Western political thought has been written for undergradu- ate students of political science in India who are just beginning their study of Plato’s Republic or Hobbes’ Leviathan or Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. The reader is meant to assist them in their effort to comprehend and under- stand the classics of Western political thought. Putting together this reader for students, I would like to acknowledge my own debt to my teachers, both at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and at the University of California, Los Angeles, who taught and introduced me to the discipline of political thought. It is their lectures and seminars that engendered and sustained my interest in this area of political science. I would also like to thank the students, both at Miranda House, and at Jawaharlal Nehru University, who attended my classes in Western politi- cal thought, and whose interventions often helped me with interpretive issues. I am grateful to the staff of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Library, New Delhi, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, and the Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service Library at Doha, Qatar, for providing me with all the material that helped me to write this reader. I would like to thank my editors at Pearson Education, specially Kamini Mahadevan, Debjani M. Dutta and Sukanya Chakrabarti, with- out whose insistence, encouragement and hard work, this book would not have been produced. Finally, I thank my family for their constant and patient support of my work.
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