The Spectre of Democracy: The Rise of Modern Democracy as seen by its Critics PDF
Preview The Spectre of Democracy: The Rise of Modern Democracy as seen by its Critics
THE SPECTRE OF DEMOCRACY Also by Michael Levin and published by Macmillan MARX, ENGELS AND LIBERAL DEMOCRACY The Spectre of Democracy The Rise of Modern Democracy as seen by its Critics Michael Levin Senior Lecturer in Politics Goldsmiths' College, University of London M MACMILLAN ©Michael Levin 1992 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1992 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1992 Published by MACMILLAN ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-349-12549-4 ISBN 978-1-349-12547-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-12547-0 For Patricia Contents Preface lX Acknowledgements xii Part I: FACTS AND THEORIES 1 The Legislative Background 3 2 The Case Against Democracy 34 PART II: THINKERS 3 John Adams 71 4 G.W.F. Hegel 91 5 Alexis de Tocqueville 111 6 Thomas Carlyle 134 PART III: DEMOCRACY AND DISCRIMINATION 7 'Beings of an Inferior Order': The Ideology of Black Subordination in the USA 157 8 'Exalted by their Inferiority': On the Subjection of Women 175 PART IV 9 Conclusion 201 Notes 218 Bibliography 236 Index 244 vii viii A Spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of Communism. All the Powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French radicals and German police-spies. Marx and Engels Today's chaos hides behind one word, 'democracy'. This word is sovereign, universal. All parties seek to appropriate it ... It is the revolutionary and despotic idea par excellence. It is this idea that must be extirpated. Guizot Whence comes it, this universal, big, black Democracy; whither tends it; what is the meaning of it? Carlyle Preface 'A Spectre is haunting Europe.' On that point Marx and Engels were certainly correct. However, that spectre was not so much of com munism as of democracy. Today these phenomena are regarded as mutually exclusive. A century-and-a-half ago they could be taken as identical. Communism was merely the most extreme form of the wider democratic tendency. Before the 1848--9 revolutions the main radical currents, whether liberal, socialist or anarchist, saw them selves as on the same side and engaged in the same struggle against the forces of restoration. At the time the Communist Manifesto was written, the Communist League, from whom it was commissioned, represented no more than a minor clique. It was a form of self important special pleading to imagine that the established powers of Europe feared this as-yet fringe group of mainly German artisans and intellectuals. Thus Marx and Engels drew on to themselves an anti pathy that really applied to the much broader radical movement of which they were but a small part. It is the fear of this wider movement which is the theme of this book. My interest in the subject developed out of my study on Marx, Engels and Liberal Democracy (Macmillan, 1989). A number of themes mentioned briefly in Chapter 1 of that work are given more extended treatment here. In a sense the two books are complemen tary. The first considered a left-wing analysis of emerging liberal democracy while the second looks at the same phenomenon from the viewpoints of certain right-wing thinkers. The first chapter of the present book provides a history of franchise extensions in the United States of America, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. It is, admittedly, too brief for students primarily interested in that process but is intended just to present in outline the milestones along the road of political democratisation. It should, additionally, provide some background and context for the four thinkers from those four countries who will be considered in Part II (Chapters 3 to 6). The second chapter provides an overview of the main themes used by opponents of franchise extension. They tended to regard the status quo as satisfactory and hence judged proposals for change as un necessary. They also emphasised that stability should be given pri ority, that experience and expertise were basic necessities and that ix X Preface the soundest judgements were most likely to come from those possessed of property and rationality. We now turn from the general to the particular and look at four key thinkers in the debate on democratic government. Chapter 3 considers John Adams, the first Vice-President and second President of the United States of America. Adams had supported the Ameri can Revolution of 1776 but the consequences of the French Revolu tion and fears for the stability of his own country made him suspicious of the democratic movement. In Chapter 4 we turn to Hegel, who accepted the liberatory ideas of the French Revolution, but regarded the attempts at implementa tion as incapable of creating the cohesion that modern societies required. Alexis de Tocqueville, who is the subject of Chapter 5, visited the United States of America to see democracy in action. He viewed the victory of democracy as inevitable but feared for the survival of liberty alongside it. In Chapter 6 we consider Thomas Carlyle, a right-wing radical critic of aristocratic regimes both in pre-revolutionary France and in nineteenth-century England. In his view democracy dealt negligent aristocracies their just deserts, but was in itself incapable of produc ing the true and worthy aristocracy that society required. Two groups were relatively late in achieving citizenship rights. Their disqualifications were genetically based. In Chapter 7 we examine the ideology of black subordination as found in the United States of America. The southern states' pro-slavery literature drew on the Bible, the ancient Greeks and the hardships of the modern 'free' worker in the attempt to justify continuing black slavery. The ideology of black subordination survived emancipation from slavery and helped delay the political enfranchisement of American blacks until the 1960s. Women, whose political integration is the subject of Chapter 8, were the last major grouping to achieve political rights. In addition to particular alleged disqualifications, such as being suited by nature for domestic life, they shared the deficiencies attributed to other subor dinate groups. Thus they were seen by men as being irrational, relatively uneducated and, for most of the nineteenth century, unpro pertied. In the Conclusion we shall take an overview of the anti-democratic arguments and consider which of them appear most prescient and
The list of books you might like
