Political Thought: Thinkers and Concepts Jack Usher L/U6M1/2 Rights and Obligations Obligations John Locke - Social contract & tacit consent • • The consent of all men to unite into a community (for mutual safety and comfort), to create a government incorporating the populace into a body politic. • Somewhat democratic - all men have consented to it + governed by a majority. • Satisfies the voluntary and universal criteria of consent. • Based on express consent; Locke believed there to be an original agreement of men. • Locke also allows for tacit consent; our continuing consent given in the acceptance of state’s benefits is grounds for political obligation. • If an individual has tacitly consented to government, he is free to leave at any time and set up his own new commonwealth - in otherwise unclaimed territory. • Man cannot return to state of nature unless government is dissolved. • One can become a full member of society through positive engagement + express consent (foreigners). Jonathan Wolf - Tacit consent & its problems • • Consent given by man through voting. • We never chose to be ruled, issues with abstention. • Consent given through silent acceptance of society’s benefits e.g. security. • Issues since only way to dissent is to leave society. • No moral justification for the original creation of the state. Jonathan Wolf - ‘Universal political obligations’ • • Everyone within state’s boundaries are bound to obey its laws - has to be universal and non-discriminate. • ‘Political obligation’ is the duty to obey one’s country/state, even if the obligation contradicts one’s morals. • Political obligation does not always equal moral obligation. • We are obliged to obey since we live under the state and have consented to it. • Laws are not the basis for our morality - not obeying bigoted legislature is not morally wrong. • Two are reconciled in moral laws e.g. prohibition of murder. Kant - Hypothetical consent • • Consent has to be both voluntary and universal (preconditions for all types of consent). • Idea that the social contract is wholly hypothetical; stating what we would do/would have done in the state of nature.
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• Since we would give our consent to government in state of nature, hypothetical consent creates political obligation. Hume - Criticisms of social contract theory • Due to man’s competitive nature and natural equality, only way government could have been established is through a ‘formal, beneficial covenant’. • No physical evidence of such a contract; outdates all ‘civilised arts of life’. • Modern governments have come about through power and conquest, keeping their populations in awe through violence, and this is often mistaken as ‘original contract’. • How can a contract bind all future generations? • Issue with tacit consent; not true consent and some cannot leave the state (ship/sea image of poor man, thus consent is no longer voluntary). • Issue with hypothetical consent; undermines voluntary precondition for consent and eludes to no acts thus cannot satisfy social contract. Hume - Political obligation • We should obey the state as an alternative to the state of nature; state is preferable. • No society/industry/commerce would exist without obedience; ‘because society would not otherwise subsist’. John Locke - Natural rights • Locke’s answer to Hume’s question ‘why are we found to keep our word?’ • The right to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ - also includes estate. • Political obligation is conditional - government has to uphold these rights of man thus citizens have no absolute obligation. Reciprocal obligation. • If these rights are infringed upon, man has a right/duty to rebel. • Disobedience is necessary for protection of future generations. • The only purpose of a government is to protect man’s natural rights, not to interfere in any other parts of his private life. Bentham - Utilitarianism • We should obey the law only if the benefits of doing so outweigh the costs. • Obedience will bring greater happiness to society than disobedience (Hume). • Indirect utility: laws should be obeyed since they are laws, only disobeyed to avoid disaster. We cannot set out with the aim of achieving happiness. • Disobedience is further justified if it brings greater happiness; ‘greatest happiness for greatest number’. • Premises of political obligation from utilitarianism. • Morally best society is one in which happiness is maximised. • State promotes happiness better than state of nature. • The state of nature and the state are the only alternatives. • If 1-3 hold true, then we have a moral duty to create and support the state. Jonathan Wolf - Problems with utilitarianism • Difficult to quantify/measure happiness for specific cases. • Issues with individual rationality vs. collective rationality.
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• Idea of breaking the law to increase my utility without decreasing anyone else’s. • Not justified since although leads to net increase of happiness in short term, it would decrease in long term due to more disobedience. Issue that we need a body of laws that will be respected even when breaking one could lead to increased happiness. Issues with scapegoating and miscarriages of justice; net happiness is increased, even when victim is falsely accused. Indirect utility; need to follow non-utilitarian reasoning to maximise happiness. • Not the role of the individual to consider effect of following law on happiness. • Sound justification; outperforms state of nature in terms of utility. • However, inherent problems with premises of utilitarianism; many philosophers challenge premise 1, and anarchists challenge 2 and 3. H. L. A. Hart - Problems with utilitarianism Utilitarianism doesn’t take into account the obligation to obey laws due to the cooperation of society. Seems unjustifiable since relates only to individual political obligation, not collective. By saying our overriding obligation is to avoid suffering and that obligations can so easily be overridden, confuses consequences of infringement of people’s rights/disobedience. H. L. A. Hart - Fairness Idea of ‘special rights’; rights that arise out of a transaction between two parties, arising out of voluntary action. When individuals have submitted to be governed, they have a right to similar submission from those who benefit from such behaviour. Obligation to obey covenants arises out of cooperation of society (‘mutuality of restriction’), not the degree of suffering. Thus, if one has not consented to be governed, one is under no obligation to accept the burdens that come with the benefits of a state. Idea that is one lives under the benefits of the state, there is a need to shoulder the burdens. • Fairness becomes the ‘rational core’ of tacit consent. Jonathan Wolf - Problems with fairness If one has not consented to be governed, the benefits are free in a state without the submission of free will, thus cannot deliver universal obligation to obey. Can’t be shown that everyone truly benefits from the state. • Problems with obedience based on premise of punishment. Hart claims we have a duty of fairness to accept the duty to obey the state but do we have such a duty; issues with unsolicited benefits (Robert Nozick). • Only accepted benefits give rise to obligations. • Issues with distinguishing between accepted/received benefits and how does one refuse benefits?
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• Fairness cannot deliver a universal obligation to obey. Hobbes - The state of nature • We are obliged to obey the state on the grounds that it protects us from the awful state of nature, which would be a “state of war”. • State of nature as a hypothetical construct.
Rights Legal rights • • “A type of institutional arrangement in which interests are guaranteed legal protection”, rights in their most ‘pure’ sense. • Humans are free to enter into transactions and agreements with each other; the terms of these should be protected. • Legal rights protect our interests; respect for humans’ freedom and autonomy. • This is Bentham’s definition of rights. Modern doctrines of rights • • French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789) • “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights”; equality is essential. • The Bill of Rights (1789) • United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) • Doctrines create an inalienable code of man’s rights, that he has by virtue of his humanity. • Key issue; without law, these rights may not be able to be protected. Laws and protection of rights. • Proposal of socio-economic rights; risk of cultural imperialism, imposition of our values on other, different societies. John Locke - Natural rights • • Agreement with Hobbes; man has unbridled right to protect himself and his interests in state of nature. • However, for Locke, this right is not surrendered when entering into a political community. • Man’s natural rights are to “life, liberty and [claim] estate”; inalienable and universal. • “No one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions”; sets limits to actions of government in interfering in individual’s private life. • Purpose of a political community is to protect man’s natural rights. • Natural rights are of important since they protect man’s interests and promote equality. • These interests are common to all men, but not too invasive. Jeremy Bentham - Rights in a utilitarian context • • Total disagreement with concept of natural rights, advocates legal rights. • “A son that never had a father”, “nonsense on stilts”.
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• Natural rights could exist, but since there is no evidence of an original agreement, he disagrees. • The only rights worthy of mention are those “created by general utility”. • Natural rights are irreconcilable with Bentham’s legal rights; to promote utility in a society, rights would need to evolve with its interests, not be absolutes/inflexible. Edmund Burke - Development of rights • Disagreed with the inflexibility of natural rights, favoured legal rights. • Due to complex nature of human life, government is about compromise and securing balances. • However, natural rights are “all extremes”. • Proposed “rights of Englishmen”; rights relative to our time and place, society. H. L. A. Hart - Rights from freedom • Rights need to exist since they best promote freedom. • By providing protection of human interests, parties become free from exploitation. • ‘Choice Theory’ is reconcilable with Hart’s theory; right can only be valid if the duty incurred is waiverable. • Morally acceptable; no draconian obligation, increased freedom. • ‘Choice theory’ is opposite of ‘benefit theory’ (rights as a misnomer); “X’s right to some good is just another way of talking about Y’s duty to provide that good for X”. Ronald Dworkin - ‘Taking rights seriously’ • Why do inalienable natural rights promote freedom, when legal rights seem more flexible? • “The weaker members of a political community are entitled to the same concern and respect of their government as the more powerful members have secured for themselves”. • Rights are essential, since they promote equality. • Dworkin’s aim with rights is to establish certain human interests and give them a greater priority than “interests generally in political justification.”. • Rights as trumps. Immanuel Kant - Rights from autonomy • Natural rights are reconcilable with his concept of the ‘categorical imperative’. • Idea that as moral and rational beings, our existence is the ultimate goal. • Natural, inalienable rights, help to achieve this. • Human rights help us to remain moral and rational. • Rights are “a necessary precondition to moral thinking and moral agency”. • Human rights are a part of human nature, which is an end in and of itself. Karl Marx - Bourgeois rights • Superstructure of society is based on its economic base. Rights are a part of this. • In a capitalist society, right are merely part of the bourgeois morality; a “bourgeois sham”. • Rights as a construct as opposed to part of human nature.
• Like anarchists, Marx believes that in a stateless society, rights would cease to exist. • To have a right implies that without it, an individual would be not free to lay such a claim. For Marx, legal rights distract us from this notion. Used to repress.
Democracy and Representation • • • • • •
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Models of representation (see table) Abraham Lincoln and Bernhard Crick - Definitions of democracy Lincoln’s triadic relationship; “government of the people, by the people, for the people”. Crick saw the concept as “the most promiscuous word in the world of public affairs”. Carole Pateman - Participatory democracy The democratic process must pervade all parts of life; the “existence of representative institutions at national level [is] not sufficient for democracy”. Especially in the workplace. Individuals and their institutions cannot be in isolation from each other. Participation is essential for democracy since it develops and fosters the qualities necessary for it. • Integrative effect, aids acceptance of collective decisions, gain political and democratic experience. Participatory society thus must exist for a democratic polity to subsist. • A society in which all political systems have democratised and ‘socialisation ‘through participation can take place in all areas. Economic equality is essential to this process since it gives the individual the independence and security necessary for free participation. • No dependence on others; political ideas and opinions become independent. The intrinsic values of democracy, independent of its achievements. Plato - Critique of democracy, ‘guardianship’ Masses are uneducated, not fit to rule; easily swayed by sophists. Need for an expert to carry out the skilled role of ruling (philosopher kings). • These rules would likely not be dictators since they are educated, and will be placed in circumstances where the opportunity for corruption is minimised. Sees democracy as ‘mob rule’; system us neither efficient nor useful. Carole Pateman - Critique of Plato’s theory Plato claims masses are uneducated, but it precisely their exclusion from the political process that renders them uneducated. • She agues if people can participate, they will develop the skills necessary for rational political decision-making. General critique of Plato’s theory of ‘guardianship’ Gives rise to a dictatorship with totalitarian power. The guardians have not truly been consented to by the ‘demos’. What is to stop the guardians ruling in their own interests? Public participation is necessary to prevent disparity between rulers and public interest. Who appoints the guardians? Issue of executive responsibility. Guardians may not want to take on such an important role with its responsibilities.
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• Representative democracy as a medium; the indirect rule of the ‘demos’ coupled with the freedom and expertise of the representative figures. Condorcet - Voting and the common good • Argues people will vote in line with people’s estimates or opinions of the common good, not on the basis of their own views; not representative method. • Condorcet states that if we have a better than even change of getting things right, a large electorate will vote to produce a correct result. • Dubious assumptions; that people will always vote in the common good, and that they have a better than 50% chance of being right. J. S. Mill - The democratic citizen • An individual’s life typically is limited by non-involvement in political affairs. • Self-interest in an elementary form by satisfaction of personal wants. • For Mill, involvement of the Athenians in direct democracy raised their intellectual standard, the variety of ideas and the development of their faculties. • Private citizens will benefit from engagement in public affairs by; • Application of principles that are in the interest of the common good. • Learning of the processes of politics from experts. • Made to feel one of the public, lack of disaffection from the political process. • His introverted, personal morality is challenged. • Mill is thus in favour of democracy because of the intrinsic benefits of participation. • However, Mill argues in favour of a representative model due to issues of practicality with a large electorate; risk of voters becoming demotivated. • Mill, like Pateman, sees the intrinsic benefits of democracy. Aristotle - Man’s political life • Favoured man’s active involvement in the political processes of his government. • However, believed ruling only benefited the ruling classes. • No guarantee people will respect the laws they have passed (through voting). Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The ‘general will’ • Man will be more free in a democratic society since he has passed/been involved in the passing of laws. • Economic equality is essential for this, since allows each individual independence. • Laws are made in light of the ‘general will’; the common aims and desires of all men in society. • We will be free obeying laws made on the basis of the general will since it is in all of our interests; democratic. • General will is a manifestation of our rational interests, not out short-term desires. John Locke - Protective democracy • Government’s purpose is to protect the natural rights of its citizens. • Consent is given to such a government in the social contract (follows that we will obey the state since we brought it about). • Government would be ruled by “determination of the majority”.
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De Tocqueville - Tyranny of the majority and pluralist democracy Argued that majority opinion would dictate the voting habits of the minority, for fear of social ostracism etc. Not representative. Not rule of all the people, as per Lincoln. Similar to Mill’s ‘tyranny of custom’; the weight of prevailing opinion pressuring others. Argued for a pluralist democracy to prevent a tyranny of the majority. • Variety of beliefs, demands and interests are permitted to flourish together. • Such groups lie between the government and its people. • Inherent political equality due to toleration and involvement of variety of views. • Role of government thus becomes a mediator between demands of groups to deliver a consensus. • Prevents tyranny of majority since many groups are vying for power. Joseph Schumpeter - Democratic elitism An elite model of participatory democracy. Since man is uneducated and lacking political skill, actual rule should be left in the hands of an elite minority. He argues against Rousseau’s freedom from commonality; there is “no such thing as a uniquely determined common good that all people could agree on or be made to agree on by the force of rational argument”. He argues that “the will of the people is the product and not the motive power of the political process” The arguments leveled against Plato are applicable here in response. Direct democracy The involvement of all citizens in the voting for and decreeing of laws that affect them. Equal participation is crucial; political equality of all classes. System was carried out in the classical Athenian city-states; all citizens granted the right to attend regular assemble in which laws were enacted. Little risk of government becoming disjointed from the thrust of public opinion. Political equality; both views of the majority and minority are addressed. • Response to political inequality of representative democracy. Critique of direct democracy Practicality; it would be too difficult to organise an assembly of citizens in large state. Aristotle; there is not natural law that guarantees men will obey the laws they themselves have made. Hume; man is short-sighted in his political behaviour and views, will only vote on basis of short-term desires. James Madison - Tyranny of the majority Democrat who worried about a singular elected body having such a strong majority that it would become an elected dictatorship. System of checks and balances; government would contain its own regulating bodies to limit its powers and continuously hold it accountable.
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Tom Paine - Importance of economic equality • Democratic equality includes a fairer distribution of property, not simply political and legal justice. • Economic equality gives men independence and true equality in the political sphere; those with more wealth will have more political power. • Democratic government should be based on the principle that all men are free and have natural rights which are universal and inalienable.
