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It is evident from these considerations, then, that a city-state is among the things that exist by nature, that a human being is by nature a political animal, and that anyone who is without a city-state, not by luck by nature, is either a poor specimen or else superhuman.
Aristotle: Book I Politics (Quote)
Why does Aristotle say we need government? [complex]
-Aristotle argues that government is necessary for achieving the common good and fulfilling human potential, as humans are naturally social and political.
Why does Aristotle say we need government? [simple]
-human nature (political animals)
-We can observe people ‘naturally’ forming relations of rule all around us e.g. households (hierarchy)
-human potential can only be fulfilled in political society
“We see that every CITY-STATE is a COMMUNITY of some sort, and that every community is established for the sake of some GOOD (for everyone performs every ACTION for the sake of what he takes to be good). Clearly, then, while every community aims at some good, the community that has the most AUTHORITY of all and encompasses all other aims highest, that is to say, at the good that has the most authority of all. This community is the one called a city-state, the community that is political”
Aristotle: Book I Politics (Quote)
“Hence, though an impulse toward this sort of community exists by nature in everyone, whoever first established one was responsible for the greatest of goods. For as a human being is the best of the animals when perfected, so when separated from LAW and JUSTICE he is worst of all.”
Aristotle: Book I Politics (Quote)
Hence he is the most unrestrained and most savage of animals when he lacks virtue, as well as the worst where food and sex are concerned. But justice is a political matter; for justice is the organization of a political community, and justice decides what is just”
Aristotle: Book I Politics
“Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre; and such a warre, as is of every man, against every man.”
Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan (Quote)
“Whatsoever therefore is conquest to a time of Warre, where every man is Enemy to every man'; the same is consequence to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigations nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; And the life of man, solidarity, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan (Quote)
Why does Thomas Hobbes say we need government? [complex]
Hobbes argues that without a common power to maintain order, individuals exist in a state of constant conflict, leading to a life that is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Government is necessary to provide security and prevent chaos.
Why does Thomas Hobbes say we need government? [simple]
-human life without government is pure chaos
-the state of nature without government is a state of war
-agrees with Aristotle for humans to achieve higher potential
-in order to exist in a successful society you must forfeit some of your rights to the government to escape the state of nature
“
“And he said, “If you were providing for a city of sows, Socrates, on what else would you fatten them than this?”
“Well, how should it be, Glaucon?” I said.
“As is conventional,” he said. “I suppose men who aren’t going to be wretched recline on couches and eat from tables and have relishes and desserts just like men have nowadays.”
“
Plato: The Republic
Why does Plato say we need government?
-circumstantial
-society w/ basic needs does not necessarily need gov.
-society populated w/ complex needs rule by rulers
“They are excluded pre-contractually because they have never been a part of a given social contract and never will be; or they are ejected from a contract they were previously a part of and are only able to enjoy a conditional inclusion at best”
Anderson and Samudzi: The Anarchism of Blackness (Quote)
Why does Anderson and Samudzi say we need government?
-caution against making the default assumption that we need bureaucratic government
-the ‘anarchistic’ political experience is a default relationship to society and its institutions
“Blackness is, in so many ways, anarchistic.”
Anderson and Samudzi: The Anarchism of Blackness (Quote)
“Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is.”
E.B. White: The Meaning of Democracy (Quote)
Why does E.B. White say democracies are better?
-democracy as more than its formal institutions, as a culture and way of life
-uncertainty and curiosity about democracy as part of democratic culture
“Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people, When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses.”
Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War (Quote)
“No one, so long as he has it in him to be of service to the state, is kept in political obscurity because of poverty. And, just as our political life is free and open, so is our day-to-day life in our relations with each other.”
Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War (Quote)
“We are free and tolerant in our private lives; but in public affairs we keep to the law. This is because it commands our deep respect.”
Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War (Quote)
Why does Thucydides say democracies are better?
-democracy makes Athens distinctive and superior but comes at a price (sacrificing your life)
-democracy is a foundation for rule of law, quality of opportunity, political and cultural freedom, tolerance, etc..
-the fruits of democracy are so great because Athens ‘invented’ it
-democracy benefits the whole people
“The sailors are quarreling with one another about the piloting, each supposing he ought to pilot, although he has never learned the art and can’t produce his teacher or prove there was a time when he was learning it.”
Plato: The Republic (Quote)
Why does Plato say democracies are better?
-he doesn’t… says democracy gives power to amateurs rather than experts
-governance requires expertise & democracy lets too many non-experts intervene
“
“Then,” I said, “he also lives along day by day, gratifying the desire that occurs to him, at one time drinking and listening to the flute, at another downing water and reducing; now practicing gymnastic, and again idling and neglecting everything; and sometimes spending his time as though he were occupied with philosophy. Often he engages in politics and, jumoing up, says and does whatever chances to come to him; and if he ever admires any soldiers, he turns in that direction; and if it’s money-makers, in that one. And there is neither order nor necessity in his life, but calling this life sweet, free, and blessed he follows it throughout”
“
Plato: The Republic (Quote)
“the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, — a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s sould by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, — and American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder”
W.E.B. DuBois: The Souls of Black Folk (Quote)
“As the time flew, however, he began to grasp a new idea. The ideal of liberty demanded for its powerful means, and these the Fifteenth Amendment gave him. The ballot, which before he had looked upon as a visible sign of freedom, he now regarded as the chief means of gaining and perfecting the liberty with which war had partially endowed him.”
W.E.B. DuBois: The Souls of Black Folk (Quote)
“Slowly but steadily, in the following years, a new vision began gradually to replace the dream of political power, — a powerful movement, the rise of another ideal to guide the unguided, another pillar of fire by night after a clouded day. It was the ideal of “book-learning”; the curiosity, born of compulsory ignorance, to know and test the power of the cabalistic letters of the white man, the longing to know.”
W.E.B. DuBois: The Souls of Black Folk (Quote)
Why does W.E.B. DuBois say democracies are better?
-he doesn’t… says there is always going to be an implicit and institutionalized system that is put against minorities in American democracy
-Minorities are still operating from behind a veil because the education system is put against them, which would be a step towards freedom, but they can’t take it fully
-Double consciousness proves that American democracy concots disadvantages
“Throughout the nineteenth century, theorists of democracy found it quite natural to discuss whether one country or another was “fit for democracy.” This thinking changed in the twentieth century, with the recognition that the question itself was wrong. A country does not have to be deemed fit for democracy; rather, it has to become fit through democracy. This is indeed a momentous change, extending the potential reach of democracy to cover billions of people, with their varying histories and cultures and disparate levels of affluence.”
Amartya Sen: Democracy as a Universal Value (Quote)
Why does Amartya Sen say democracies are better?
-Says that democracy promotes economic stability and the capacity to discuss/have discourse
-democracy promotes societal advancements which is promoted by the liberties in which democracy is founded upon
“Value of democracy includes its intrinsic importance in human life, instrumental role in generating political incentives, and its constructive function in the formation of values (facilitating the weight of needs, rights, and duties)”
Amartya Sen: Democracy as a Universal Value (Quote)
“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery;… There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.”
Frederick Douglass: The Meaning of the Fourth of July (Quote)
Do modern democracies count as democracies per Frederick Douglass?
-No… modern American democracy is hypocritical… falls short of it’s own ideals
-asks whether or not the countries of the world that present themselves as democracies uphold the defining factors of democracy
“Consisted in exercising collectively, but directly, several parts of the complete sovereignty; in deliberating, in the public square, over war and peace; in forming alliances with foreign governments; in voting laws, in pronouncing judgements; in examining the accounts, the acts, the stewardship of the magistrates; in calling them to appear in front of the assembled people, in accusing, condemning or absolving them. But if this was what the ancients called liberty, they admitted as compatible with this collective freedom the complete subjection of the individual to the authority of the community.”
Benjamin Constant: The Liberty of the Ancients (Quote)
Do modern democracies count as democracies per Benjamin Constant?
-no— deliberately draws distinction between ancient and modern democracies
-if we update our definition of democracy so as to protect the liberties of modern individuals
-modern representative democracy vs. ancient direct democracy
“Self-government is a very demanding and time-consuming business, and when it is extended from political to economic and cultural life, and when the organs of government are decentralized so as to maximize participation, it will inevitably almost continuous activity, and life will become a succession of meetings. When will there be time for the cultivation of personal creativity or the free association of like-minded friends? In the world of the meeting, when will there be time for the tete-a-tete?”
Michael Walzer: A Day in the Life of a Socialist Citizen (Quote)
Do modern democracies count as democracies per Michael Walzer?
-democratic ideals of participation and self-government as unresolved and problematic
-democracy is too time consuming, but not necessarily resolved by solution of representation
“in a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person; in a republic, they assemble and administer it by their representatives and agents. A democracy, consequently, will be confined to a small spot. A republic may be extended over a large region”
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams: The Federalist Papers #63
“it is clear that the principle of representation was neither unknown to the ancients nor wholly overlooked in their political constitutions. The true distinction between these and the American governments, lies IN THE TOTAL EXCLUSION OF THE PEOPLE, IN THEIR COLLECTIVE CAPACITY, from any share in the LATTER, and not in the administration of the FORMER.”
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams: The Federalist Papers #63
Do modern democracies count as democracies per the Federalist Paper authors’?
-(like Constant) believes that modern democracy is representative (or should be)
-advocated not for "total exclusion of the people" but rather for a system where people's interests were represented indirectly through elected official
-Madison's distinction between pure democracy and representative democracy (republic)
Pure democracy: Direct rule by the people, which Madison saw as potentially unstable and prone to faction.
Republic: A system with elected representatives, which Madison favored
-pure democracy favors a majority and doesn’t represent a minority like a republic
-Size of the United States won’t support a democracy
“It is, that in a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person; in a republic, they meet and assemble and administer it by their representatives and agents. A demoracy, consequently, will be confined to a small spot. A republic may be extended over a large region.”
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams: The Federalist Papers (#14)
“The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States.”
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams: The Federalist Papers (#10)
Edmund Burke: Speech to the Electors of Bristol (Quote)
Edmund Burke: Speech to the Electors of Bristol (Quote)
What does Burke say we should ask of our representatives?
-to balance
-two ways of being a representative
as a conduit of constituent’s preferences
entrusted with own judgement to work for common good of all
Aristotle
Book I Politics
Thomas Hobbes
Leviathan
Plato
Republic
Andersen & Samudzi
The Anarchism of Blackness
DO WE NEED GOVERNMENT?
Aristotle
Thomas Hobbes
Plato
Andersen & Samudzi
DO WE NEED GOVERNMENT?
Book I Politics
Leviathan
Republic
The Anarchism of Blackness
E.B. White
The Sounds of Democracy
Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War
Plato
Republic
W.E.B DuBois
The Souls of Black Folk
Amartya Sen
Democracy as a Universal Value
IS DEMOCRACY BETTER?
E.B. White
Thucydides
Plato
W.E.B. DuBois
Amartya Sen
Frederick Douglass
The Meaning of the Fourth of July
Benjamin Constant
The Liberty of Ancients as Compared With That of Moderns
Michael Walzer
Day in the Life of a Socialist Citizen
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams
The Federalist Papers (10,14,63)
DO MODERN DEMOCRACIES COUNT? (critiquing democracy)
Frederick Douglass
Benjamin Constant
Michael Walzer
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams
Edmund Burke
Speech to the Electors of Bristol
James Mansbridge
Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A Contingent ‘Yes’
Philip Pettit
Representation, Responsive & Indicative
WHAT SHOULD WE ASK OF OUR REPRESENTATIVES (representation/republic)
Edmund Burke
James Mansbridge
Philip Pettit
Alexander Bickel
The Least Dangerous Branch
Jeremy Waldron
The Core of the Case against Judicial Review
Nikolas Bowie
How the Supreme Court dominates our democracy
IS JUDICIAL REVIEW DEMOCRATIC?
Alexander Bickel
Jeremy Waldron
Nikolas Bowie
