PoliSci 6E

what does good gov look like for Rousseau?

-small enough to have no delegation -follows the general will (common good) -middle class citizenry (moderate wealth) -people do not flaunt property

4th phase of development/society

-society protects the rich and creates forces which protects the rich's property. -citizens turn over judgments of themselves to others, allowing society to shape people's individual image of themselves

Machiavelli's Three Points

1) Always ensure you are supported by the power you hold 2) Always attend to appearances 3) Understand your environment and act appropriately in it

Rousseau's phases of society

1) happy savage in the state of nature 2) emerging society 3) break down of society 4) state of war

Three points of the discourses

1) natural man 2) why civil gov is formed 3) why such govs tend to be abusive 4) what good gov would look like

"But though this be a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of licence: though man in that state have an uncontrollable liberty to dispose of his person or possessions, yet he has not liberty to destroy himself, or so much as any creature in his possession, but where some nobler use than its bare preservation calls for it. The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions"

Locke -People should not harm others in the state of nature -Total freedom is guided by the law of nature, which is reason

"All men by nature are equal. I cannot be supposed to understand all sorts of equality: age or virtue may give men a just precedency: excellency of parts and merit may place others above the common level: birth may subject some, and alliance or benefits others, to pay an observance to those to whom nature, gratitude, or other respects, may have made it due: and yet all this consists with the equality, which all men are in, in respect of jurisdiction or dominion one over another; which was the equality I there spoke of, as proper to the business in hand, being that equal right, that every man hath, to his natural freedom, without being subjected to the will or authority of any other man."

Locke -all men are created equal -people are not supposed to have permanent subjection over another person -total rejection of slavery and indentured servants of any kind

"I easily grant, that civil government is the proper remedy for the inconveniences of the state of nature, which must certainly be great, where men may be judges in their own case, since it is easy to be imagined, that he who was so unjust as to do his brother an injury, will scarce be so just as to condemn himself for it."

Locke -civil government is the key to the negatives of the state of nature -civil gov can fix your transgressions better than you can

"Though the earth, and all inferior creatures, be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person: this nobody has any right to but himself. The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his." ..... "That labour put a distinction between them and common: that added something to them more than nature, the common mother of all, had done; and so they became his private right."

Locke -everyone has right to property. -your labor in the land becomes your property

"Man is a political animal. Feeling connected is important to everybody"

Locke -in the state of nature, our social needs aren't met and that's why we diverge from the norm to create civil society

"And thus, in the state of nature, one man comes by a power over another; but yet no absolute or arbitrary power, to use a criminal, when he has got him in his hands, according to the passionate heats, or boundless extravagance of his own will; but only to retribute to him, so far as calm reason and conscience dictate, what is proportionate to his transgression, which is so much as may serve for reparation and restraint: for these two are the only reasons why one man may lawfully do harm to another, which is that we call punishment."

Locke -in the state of nature, we are allowed to execute punishments -whoever had the transgression against them is able to have reparations

"As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property. He by his labour does, as it were, inclose it from the common."

Locke -man can only take up as much land and possessions as he can use -don't take a bite that you can't chew

"Great mistakes in the ruling part, many wrong and inconvenient laws, and all the slips of human frailty, will be born by the people without mutiny or murmur. But if a long train of abuses, prevarications and artifices, all tending the same way, make the design visible to the people, and they cannot but feel what they lie under, and see whither they are going; it is not to be wondered, that they should then rouze themselves, and endeavour to put the rule into such hands which may secure to them the ends for which government was at first erected"

Locke -people can endure maltreatment for a long time -but, if the people feel the need to overthrow the gov (they aren't treating the ppl to their best interests), they may do so

"IF man in the state of nature be so free, as has been said; if he be absolute lord of his own person and possessions, equal to the greatest, and subject to no body, why will he part with his freedom?"

Locke -people part with their freedom because of the lack of necessities and because of the major inconveniences it causes -lack of law, lack of indifferent judge, lack of power

"Man joins to protect his state and property"

Locke -since we are out of the state of nature now, our property is important to us. We have to protect it.

"The difficulty is: what ought to be looked upon as a tacit consent and how far it binds. Every man that has any possession or enjoyment of the dominions of any government thereby gives his tacit consent and is obliged to the laws and obedience to the laws of such government."

Locke -tacit consent= implied/assumed consent -wherever you are staying in a country, you give your tacit consent to be subjected to the same rules and regulations of the place

"MEN being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent. The only way whereby any one divests himself of his natural liberty, and puts on the bonds of civil society, is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties, and a greater security against any, that are not of it.. When any number of men have so consented to make one community or government, they are thereby presently incorporated, and make one body politic, wherein the majority have a right to act and conclude the rest."

Locke -to form civil society, expressed consent must be given -you give permission that all decisions are made by majority vote

"... that self-love will make men partial to themselves and their friends: and on the other side, that ill nature, passion and revenge will carry them too far in punishing others..."

Locke -we need the government's help in moderating punishment as we are more prone to be nicer to our friends and meaner to strangers

"I argue it would be good to be thought generous; nevertheless, if you act in the way that will get you a reputation for generosity, you will do yourself damage."

Machiavelli - you should always be generous because doing so will do you more damage than good. This is because it will only satisfy a few and not the majority. Once you run out of money, people will not be so kind and loving towards you.

"Auxiliaries are the other sort of useless troops. You rely on auxiliaries when you appeal to another ruler to come with his own armies to assist or defend you. This is what Pope Julius did in recent times, when, having discovered the incompetence of his mercenary troops during the siege of Ferrara, he decided to rely on auxiliaries, and reached an agreement with King Ferdinand of Spain that he would come to his assistance with his men and arms.56 Auxiliary troops can be useful and good when fighting on their own behalf, but they are almost always a liability for anyone relying on their assistance. For if they lose, it is you who are defeated; if they win, you are their prisoner."

Machiavelli -Auxiliaries are just as bad as mercenaries. Once again, they are not loyal. You will become their prisoner if they win and it's you who is defeated when they lose.

"If you look you will see that the dictators, as long as they were appointed according to the constitutional procedures, and did not appoint themselves, were always good for the city. Those appointments made and those powers claimed by non-constitutional means harm republics; but those that are constitutional do no harm."

Machiavelli -Dictators were good if they were appointed constitutionally. People who self made themselves dictators were always shitty and did a lot of harm.

"A legislator should, however, use care and skill [virtuoso] to ensure that the power he has seized is not inherited by a successor; for, since men are more inclined to do evil than good, his successor is likely to use for selfish purposes the power he has been using for the public good. Moreover, one person alone may be best at drawing up plans, but the institutions he has designed will not survive long if they continue to depend on the decisions of one man. They will do better if many share the responsibilities, and if many are concerned to preserve them."

Machiavelli -It's important to have a national hero to create something good, but the people must continue what he is doing. needs people to legitimize it

"He who comes to power with the help of the elite has more difficulty in holding on to power than he who comes to power with the help of the populace, for in the former case he is surrounded by many who think of themselves as his equals, and whom he consequently cannot order about or manipulate as he might wish. He who comes to power with the support of the populace, on the other hand, has it all to himself: There is no one, or hardly anyone, around him who is not prepared to obey."

Machiavelli -It's worse to come into power thru the nobles. They are manipulative and will always try to take your position away from you. It's better to be a citizen ruler because you can't get rid of the people, but you can get rid of the nobles.

"But anyone who becomes a ruler with the support of the elite and against the wishes of the populace must above all else seek to win the populace over to his side, which will be easy to do if he protects their interests. And since people, when they are well-treated by someone whom they expected to treat them badly, feel all the more obliged to their benefactor, he will find that the populace will quickly become better inclined towards him than if he had come to power with their support. There are numerous ways the ruler can win the support of the populace. They vary so much depending on the circumstances they cannot be reduced to a formula, and, consequently, I will not go into them here. I will simply conclude by saying a ruler needs to have the support of the populace, for otherwise he has nothing to fall back on in times of adversity."

Machiavelli -People will react a lot better when they realize that the person who they thought would treat them poorly actually treats them well.

"Both monarchies and republics need to be regulated by laws, for a king who can do whatever he wants is a madman on the loose, and a populace that can do what it wants is never wise. However, if we were to discuss the relative merits of a monarch who is obliged to obey the law and a populace restrained by legislation, you would find that the populace made a better ruler [si vedra più virtù nel popolo] than the monarch. If we were to discuss both types of government unconstrained by the law, you would find that the populace makes fewer mistakes than a monarch, and the ones it makes are less significant and easier to put right. For a populace that is licentious and disorderly needs only to be talked to by someone who is good, and he will find it easy to set it on the right path. A bad monarch will not listen to anyone, and the only way to correct him is to kill him. This enables one to judge the relative importance of the faults of the two types of government. To cure the faults of the people, you need only words; to cure those of a monarch, you need cold steel. Now it is obvious that a disease that is hard to cure is worse than one that is easy."

Machiavelli -Populace is the better ruler compared to a monarch. This is because they are rarely ever persuaded by their own illogical judgments. People are persuaded to make decisions on what's best for everyone. Rulers should gain the populace's favor.

"Anyone who reads the history of Rome with care will recognize how useful religion was when it came to commanding armies, to inspiring the populace, to keeping men on the straight and narrow, to making criminals ashamed of themselves."___ "There has not been a single founder of an exceptional constitution for a nation who has not had recourse to divine authority, for otherwise it would have been impossible for him to win acceptance for his proposals."

Machiavelli -Religion is important as the foundation to a government. It serves as an intermediary role between the divine and secular. It helps to keep people in line with good.

"Anyone who relies on mercenary troops to keep himself in power will never be safe or secure, for they are factious, ambitious, ill-disciplined, treacherous. They show off to your allies and run away from your enemies. They do not fear God and do not keep faith with mankind. A mercenary army puts off defeat for only so long as it postpones going into battle. In peacetime they pillage you, in wartime they let the enemy do it. This is why: They have no motive or principle for joining up beyond the desire to collect their pay. And what you pay them is not enough to make them want to die for you. They are delighted to be your soldiers when you are not at war; when you are at war, they walk away when they do not run."

Machiavelli -You should never trust mercenary troops because they are not devoted to you. They will backstab you. Devotion over money. LOYALTY.

"...a ruler need not have all the positive qualities I listed earlier, but he must seem to have them."

Machiavelli -a ruler should only appear to be good and virtuous, but be prepared to do controversial things for the greater good. "Everyone sees what you seem to be; few have direct experience of who you really are."

"Is it better to be loved or feared?"

Machiavelli -better to be loved AND feared, but if you were to choose one, it should be feared. This is because a ruler should be able to govern to set an example for the greater good of the people. i.e.- enacting capital punishment would set example and protect the many rather than the one

"I conclude, then, that a ruler need not worry much about conspiracies as long as the people wish him well; but if the people are hostile to him and hate him, then he should fear everything and everyone. States that are well-governed and rulers who are wise make every effort to ensure the elite are not driven to despair, and to satisfy the masses and keep them content; for this is one of the most important tasks a ruler must set himself."

Machiavelli -it's important for the ruler to make the populace content. If he knows they aren't he should be wary of any conspiracies and hostile takeovers.

"Men always praise the olden days and criticize the present, but they do not always have good reason for doing so. They are so biased in favor of the past that they do not celebrate only those periods they know about because of the surviving descriptions of them written by men alive at the time; they also, once they have become old, praise the way they remember things having been in their youth."

Machiavelli -people always praise the olden days because they only see what's good about it. They don't see its flaws and realize how a lot of the things in the past were also bad.

"anyone who ignores everyday reality to live up to a ideal will soon discover he learned how to destroy not preserve himself. He must learn not to be good and know when it is and not necessary when to use this knowledge. A wise ruler should not always keep his word. You need not keep faith with them since all men are wicked and not good. This would not apply if all men were good"

Machiavelli -ruler should not be always inherently good because people are inherently bad. you must be prepared to do controversial things. wise ruler should not always keep their word.

"For men almost always walk along the beaten path, and what they do is almost always an imitation of what others have done before. But you cannot walk exactly in the footsteps of those who have gone before, nor is it easy to match the skill [virtù] of those you have chosen to imitate. Consequently, a prudent man will always try to follow in the footsteps of great men and imitate those who have been truly outstanding, so that, if he is not quite as skillful [virtù] as they, at least some of their ability may rub off on him."

Machiavelli -rulers should always try to imitate people who were successful before them. This is so that people can come as close to success as they can. Even if they aren't as successful, they were close.

"But, coming to the alternative possibility, when a private citizen becomes the ruler of his homeland, not through wickedness or some act of atrocity, but through the support of his fellow citizens, so that we may call him a citizen-ruler (remember we are discussing power acquired neither by pure strength [virtù] nor mere luck—in this case one needs a lucky cunning), I would point out there are two ways to such power: the support of the populace or the favor of the elite. For in every city one finds these two opposed classes. They are at odds because the populace do not want to be ordered about or oppressed by the elite; and the elite want to order about and oppress the populace."

Machiavelli -the citizen-ruler is someone who is brought into power by the populace. This is always a better ruler because they are supported and loved by the populace. Worse to come into power thru nobles

functions of the law giver

Rousseau function 1) changes individualism into corporatism function 2) guide people to follow the general will function 3) intermediary between higher power and the people function 4) have charisma to induce a following

why can government become abusive?

civil society creates a system in which normal citizens are chained/fettered to society. Property and inequality is established so that the rich may have more power over the poor.

general will

common good, what's good for the community

2nd phase of development/society

happiest place, but does not include any cooperation between people. relationships are most durable. it's highly individualistic

1st phase of development/society

happy savage does not want to harm anyone. there is no reason or natural law. it is instinctive, driven by self preservation and pity.

morrow freedom

highest level of freedom (Rousseau)

Rousseau's view on liberty

liberty is restrictive. it is subjective. How do you feel?

What is corporatism?

people are finite beings within society. what's good for the society is good for the individual

What is individualism?

people within a society are individuals with their own goals and opinions. they have their own identities.

Rousseau's idea of reason

reason takes over our instinctive pity/compassion. it's a dangerous thing. we are less likely to help others

will of all

what's good for ME, majority votes

3rd phase of development/society

with development of property, comes the deterioration of the human condition