Department of Humanities and Social Science

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1 Barry Stocker Department of Humanities and Social Science Faculty of Science and Letters Chapter 1 POLITICAL THEORY. ITB 227E NOTES WEEK SIX JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU ( ) OF THE SOCIAL CONTRACT [1761] BOOK III CHAPTER 1-9 Rousseau discusses the general nature of government. He sees the relation between the sovereign who legislates and the government as like that between will and body within the human individual. The laws are like the will. The government is like the body. The body does what the will commands as the government does what the laws command. Where government and law-making sovereign are not in harmony a disaster appears which will be anarchy or despotism. Anarchy if the government is not strong enough to enforce law and despotism if the government becomes stronger than the sovereign. The individual members of the government are known as magistrates and the government collectively is known as the prince, whether or not it is ruler by a dynasty. Rousseau uses his knowledge of Venice, which owes a lot to a period he spent working in the French embassy there, to confirm that government collectively is known as the prince. When the Doge (Duke, a figure elected for life in Venice) is absent, the governing council is still known as the prince. There is a threefold relation between individuals who make up the sovereign as citizens, the government which enforces laws, it enforces laws in enforcing them on subjects (the same group of individuals as the sovereign, but in a different function). The capacity of government to enforce laws, or its acts of any kind, decreases as the size of the sovereign (the number of citizens) increases. This means that more force has to be used the large the population of a state is. States with a small population will need to imposes force on citizens (who are subjects when seen from the perspective of the enforcement of law). Citizens have less liberty the more citizens there are, since each citizen has a smaller

2 2 Political Theory Spring 2106 Notes 6 share of the total number of vote is the total number of citizens is greater. The implication is cleat that a smaller population means more liberty and less subjection to force. The government needs its own force structured so that it can effectively. Effective government depends on properly regulated councils and assemblies with increasing rewards for magistrates (government members) the more heavy their duties are. This should serve the general will/the sovereign as a subaltern body and should place itself above the sovereign so that the people become an instrument of government. Chapter 2 Rousseau considers the principles that constitutes different forms of government. This is that the force of government diminishes the more magistrates there are. The force diminishes, because magistrates have individual wills and there more individual wills there are within the government/the prince, the less harmony and unity there will be. Ideally the magistrates will have no individual will, but just the particular will of the government as opposed to the general will of the sovereign, and the general will. However, the reality is that over time individual wills are bound to show themselves so that the particular will, that is the corporate will of the government, loses unity and becomes further removed from the general will. Because the government needs more force, the more citizens there and because there is more forces with less magistrates, a government must have less members to be effective the larger the number of citizens is. Chapter 3 There are three types of government, which are defined by the proportion of citizens participating in government: Monarchy, Aristocracy, Democracy. Monarchy is a government of one person. Aristocracy is the government of more than one person which is less than half the number of citizens. Democracy is the government of some number between all citizens and just over half. Democracy and aristocracy are more open and variable than monarchy with regard to how many citizens participate in government. It is possible to have more than one king as with the ancient Spartans who had two kings. It is possible to have mixed forms of government in which one part is democracy, another is aristocratic and another is monarchical, or any combination of two. For reasons explained in previous chapters government should have less citizens in it the larger the citizen body, so that monarchy is most suitable for a large population, democracy is most suitable for a very small population, and aristocracy is suitable for what comes in between.

3 3 Political Theory Spring 2106 Notes 6 Chapter 4 Rousseau discusses democracy, arguing that it can never exist in its purest form, which would be the constant assembly of all citizens to conduct government business. Some less pure forms of democracy are possibly, but only suit small populations. It might seem that those who make laws (all citizens formed into the general will) should execute them, but any benefit is outweighed by the danger of individual wills becoming distracted from the common good in dealing with the parts of government business. This is likely to lead to corruption and conflict, which Rousseau sees as problems inherent to democracy. Democracy can only have any success at all in a small community where there is no wealth so that citizens are not distracted from the common good by the pursuit of wealth or envy at those who have more. Such a community could avoid distinctions based on social rank, would share mores (customs and habits) as the same for everyone. Rousseau refers to a celebrated author who said that virtue is the principle of democracy. He is referring to Charles-Louis, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu ( ), a French judge and writer. In his best known book, The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu says that there are different principles, basic sources of strength in public manners, for each form of government. Virtue for democracy. Moderation for aristocracy. Honour for monarchy. Fear for despotism. Rousseau agrees that a high level of virtue is necessary for democracy, but denies it is a principle unique to democracy. All forms of government rest on virtue, but democracy needs it more. Chapter 5 Aristocracy is the first form of government. In the earliest societies the heads of families gather to discuss government matters, forming a natural aristocracy. This the origin of any office of high rank. North American Indians still govern themselves in this manner according to Rousseau. Over time the influence of power and wealth leads to the aristocracy becoming elected, which is Rousseau s most favoured form of government. Over time the influence of power and wealth leads to transmission of wealth from father to son and the formation of a hereditary aristocracy. Elective aristocracy has the advantage of allowing those with the greatest reputation for wisdom and honesty to be elected on the basis of their good reputation.

4 4 Political Theory Spring 2106 Notes 6 An assembly of the aristocracy is more effective than an assembly of all citizens in conducting public business. Aristocracy requires less virtues than democracy, but it does require a virtue of its own, which is moderation. That is moderation in the pursuit of wealth, enjoyment of wealth and envy of wealth. Rousseau offers ancient Sparta as model of moderation in an aristocracy. Rousseau follows Montesquieu in regarding moderation as necessary to aristocracy, though unlike Montesquieu he defines moderation as a virtue rather than a principle. The benefits of aristocracy is that the class of the wealthy forms the aristocracy and has more time to think about public affairs than the rest of the population. However, poor people should sometimes be elected into the aristocratic government to show that merit is more important than wealth. Chapter 6 Monarchy is the strongest form of government as all the actions of government are united in one person. However, the dependence of monarchy on the person of the monarchy is its weakness. There are very few individuals suited to holding so much power and exercising it for the public good rather than private ends. It is true that strength of a monarch rests on the strength of a people, but most monarchs will pursue the immediate attractions of self-interest rather than the longer term benefits of the public good. The succession to a monarchy after the death of monarchy creates a moment of crisis. An elective monarchy will tend to lead to conflict between the candidates for election (monarchy based on election of one amongst the family of the previous monarch have been quite frequent, though the election may in practice depend on a violent struggle for power). Hereditary monarchy offers more stability, but offers no guarantee of a well qualified individual becoming monarchy. Rousseau does not think that education guarantees that the heir will become a good king as there are so many reasons not to be a good king. Someone with good innate qualities to be a king is likely to lose those qualities through royal education. We can confirm this when we consider how many of the best monarchs were not born to rule. Rousseau may amongst other things be thinking of those Roman emperors adopted by their predecessor, as the best candidate. Rousseau refers to Machiavelli s The Prince as an analysis of monarchy. He regards it as a warning against the tendency of monarchs to abuse power. He had to give an indirect warning, because he was living under the Medici domination of Florence as a reason that Machiavelli could not give a direct endorsement of republicanism. Rousseau refers to to

5 5 Political Theory Spring 2106 Notes 6 the famous wickedness of the apparent Hero of The Prince (i.e. Cesare Borgia) as evidence that it is a warning against the wickedness of monarchs. Rousseau argues that the Catholic church tried to suppress the book, because it makes clear how corrupt the Papacy was. Machiavelli suggests that the distance of a monarch from the people, particularly given that monarchies are most likely to arise in states with a large population, means they have to rely on intermediaries, a system of ranks of aristocrats and royal servants, to manage affairs. The court around the person of the monarch is likely to attract the worse people who seek benefit from association with the monarch and is part of the problems with monarchy. A republic is much more likely to produce good leaders than the process which produces a monarch and his appointment of favoured people to work under him. He refers to those who demand obedience to monarchy as the condition of good monarchy as justifying monarchy of a tyrannical kind. He does not give names, but presumably means Grotius, Hobbes and Pufendorf whom he has already mentioned. Chapter 7 Rousseau discusses mixed governments. He argues that all governments are mixed since aristocratic and republican governments need someone to serve as the head of the system, while a monarch needs subordinate officials to exercise power where he monarchy is available to act. Monarchy should be limited by subordinate powers (this is something discussed by Montesquieu who refers to town councils, church government, the aristocracy), though this is to be distinguished from mixed government which means a mixture within the highest level of government. Though mixed government is inevitable, simple government is the most effective so to some degree we should aim to go in that direction. Just as the force of monarchy should be tempered, limited, moderated by lower magistrates, the force of democracy should be reinforced by tribunes to represent the people. This is something particularly associated with the ancient Roman Republic in its most democratic phase, though Rousseau associates it with all democracies. He may think that the elected board of generals in ancient Athens corresponds with the Roman tribunes. There can be a horizontal division of power between different parts of the political system as well as hierarchical vertical ordering of powers in mixed government. Rousseau offers a

6 6 Political Theory Spring 2106 Notes 6 good example of a division of powers between equal centres and a bad example. The good example is England/Great Britain, where Rousseau presumably thinks of the monarchy, the House of Lords (the upper house of Parliament) and the House of Commons (the lower house of Parliament) where the parts depend on each other. His bad example is Poland, where Rousseau says that parts are independent of each other, so nothing can be done. He is presumably thinking of the aristocratic assembly, which had a huge membership, and in which every single member could veto any measure with a single negative vote. Chapter 8 Rousseau discusses the variations in suitable government according to climate. As he says, he is drawing on the work of Montesquieu here. Rousseau argues that there can be no government where the product of labour is no more than or is less than what is necessary to keep people alive. Government depends on some wealth left over after people meet the most immediate necessities of life to pay for it. Where the surplus is very small despotism or tyranny (the worst forms of monarchy) are likely as the surplus only pays for the despot and maybe a few servants of the despot. Unproductive countries have a population scattered over a large area and that is also suitable for despotism which uses fear as a substitute for immediate communication as a means of maintaining power. This situation arises in hot countries near the equator. Rousseau suggest they are like wildernesses containing savage beasts. Cold countries away from the equator are more productive and have a more concentrated population, suitable for governments which are republican or at least are a mild form of monarchy. We may see governments unsuitable for the climate, but this is evidence that sometimes a revolution is necessary to give a country the right kind of government, not that the theory of relation between climate and government is faulty. Chapter 9 People have many ideas about what the best kind of government is according to what they value most: order, liberty, wealth etc. There is one sign we can always rely on to show how good or bad the government is and that is population. If the population is declining, there is a bad form of government. If the population is growing, there is a good form of government. France grew in population at times of civil wars, showing that the French monarchy is a good form of government for France. Machiavelli s History of Florence shows that the

7 7 Political Theory Spring 2106 Notes 6 population grew even at times of internal conflict, demonstrating that is republican government was a good form of government for the city state.