govt 1800 final

Benjamin Constant work & argument

The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns (1819)

there are 2 types of liberty: ancient liberty (participating in politics with no private rights) and modern liberty (peaceful private independence and the right to do what you want without state interference)

Alexis de Tocqueville work & argument

Democracy in America (1835)

equality of condition is an unstoppable force in history, and while democracy can be messy and lead to mediocrity its laws generally benefit the greatest number of people and teach civic participation

Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels work & argument

The Communist Manifesto (1848)

history is a class struggle between the Bourgeois (owners) and the proletariat (workers), where they want to abolish private property and have workers take over political power to create a classless society

John Stuart Mill work & argument

On Liberty (1859)

Harm Principle: the government cant only stop you if you are harming others

Fears the tyranny of the majority where social pressure forces everyone to think and act exactly the same

Friedrich Nietzsche work & argument

On the Genealogy of Morals (1887)

western morality is a “slave revolt” led by the weak to make the strong feel guilty, and wants people to move beyond “good and evil” and reclaim a noble way of living that celebrates power and self-affirmation

Emma Goldman work & argument

Minorities versus Majorities in Anarchism and Other Essays (1910)

hates the mass spirit, believes the majority is a tyrant which kills individual genius and quality. all progress comes from the brave minority who refuse to follow the crowd

Filippo Tomasso Marinetti work & argument

The Futurist Manifesto (1909)

glorified speed, technology, and war, as he wanted to destroy the past (museums and libraries) and modernize Italy through violence and aggressive action

J.A. Hobson work & argument

Imperialism (1902)

imperialism is bad business for the nation, but very profitable for parasitic rich investors. these elites use masked words and noble-sounding excuses to trick the public into supporting wars for profit

Mahatma Gandhi work & argument

Hind Swaraj (1909)

true Swaraj is self-rule and self-control, not just kicking out the British, and modern civilization is a disease because of its obsession with material things instead of morality

Theodore Roosevelt work & argument

The Strenuous Life (1899)

nations only succeed through hard work and struggle, where imperialism is a many duty to help civilize the work and keep America from getting soft

Carl Schmitt work & argument

The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy (1926)

democracy requires sameness (homogeneity) and a state must exclude anyone who is “unequal”. liberalism and democracy are opposites, and a a strong dictator can actually represent the will of the people better than a parliament

Hannah Arendt work & argument

The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)

the rise of “nations” destroyed the “state” as a fair legal system, now with millions of stateless people who lost the right to have rights because they no longer belong to a political community

George Orwell work & argument

Looking Back on the Spanish War (1942)

fears a world where totalitarianism kills “objective truth” and warns that if a government can control the past and make people believe that 2+2=5 history itself is dead

Friedrich Hayek work & argument

The Road to Serfdom (1944)

well-meaning socialism eventually leads to totalitarianism because it gives the state too much power over individuals lives

MLK Jr work & argument

Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)

defends nonviolent civil disobedience, saying we all have a moral duty to break unjust laws, and that he is most disappointed in white moderates who prefer peace over actual justice

Václav Havel work & argument

Politics and Conscience (1984)

modern technology and giant systems have robbed people of their conscience, and calls for anti-political politics where people stop following the system’s lies and start living in truth

Iris Marion Young work & argument

Polity and Group Difference: a Critique of Universal Citizenship (1989)

critiques the idea of universal citizenship, and argues that blind rules hide the oppression of minority groups. calls for differentiated citizenship, where specific groups get their own representation and even veto power over laws that affect them

On the state & the individual

Hayek & Mill: focus on protecting the individual from state / social concern

Schmitt: a strong homogeneous group is necessary for political identity (even if it means excluding “unequals”)

Young: by treating everyone as equal under the law (colorblindness) we preserve the power of a dominant group

On progress and history

Tocqueville: democracy is an unstoppable “providential fact”

Marx & Engels: history is a teleological progression towards the end of class struggle

Marinetti: we must literally destroy history (museums and libraries) to make way for speed and violence

Orwell: the “death of history” is a tool for totalitarian control where the past is constantly rewritten

On the meaning of liberty

Constant: freedom is the ability to enjoy ones private life, undisturbed by the state

Nietzsche: freedom is the self-affirmation of the noble master who creates his own values

MLK Jr & Gandhi: freedom is a moral achievement won through nonviolent resistance & self-discipline

Havel: freedom is the existential revolution of the individual living in truth against an impersonal system

The nature of modernity

Gandhi & Havel (anti-modernity): view modernity as a disease or crisis of technology that diminishes the human scale

Constant, Tocqueville, & Hayek (pro-modernity): view the modern era (particularly its focus on commerce and individual liberty) as a significant advancement of the ancient world

The threat of the majority

Mill, Tocqueville, & Goldman (anti-majority): fear the tyranny of the majority and agree that mass opinion can be just as oppressive as a single dictator

Schmitt (pro-majority): a truly democratic state requires substantial homogeneity and an elimination of those who are unequal

Economic drivers

Marx & Hobson: economic interests are the primary drivers of political change and expansion

Marx: focuses on domestic class struggle to understand this

Hobson: focuses on “parasitic” financial interests driving the Empire

Approaches to liberation

Marinetti & Roosevelt (violence-based approach): liberation through struggle, violence, and manly toil

Gandhi & MLK Jr (non-violence approach): liberation as a moral achievement, reached through nonviolence resistance and self-discipline

Universalism vs difference

Young: critiques universal citizenship (that Constant & Mill would generally support) and argues that blind rules actually perpetuate oppression

Schmitt: also rejefcts liberal universalism, but in an argument that political equality is meaningless if its applied to everyone rather than a specific homogenous national group