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Power and Its Possessors

Power and Its Possessors. Can Social Order be Maintained without Power?. Human Nature is a source of order – John Locke Human Reasonableness – Natural Law - anarchy A Natural Harmony of Interest – Classical Liberalism – Economic Order – U.S. Constitution Custom, Habit, Tradition – Edmund Burke

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Power and Its Possessors

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  1. Power and Its Possessors

  2. Can Social Order be Maintained without Power? • Human Nature is a source of order – John Locke Human Reasonableness – Natural Law - anarchy • A Natural Harmony of Interest – Classical Liberalism – Economic Order – U.S. Constitution • Custom, Habit, Tradition – Edmund Burke • Without Spontaneous Order totalitarianism is inevitable • Machiavelli – Order is achieved by the sagacity of rulers

  3. Who Should Rule? • Anyone – Hobbes • No one – Anarchists • Can some achieve virtues not achievable by the majority? Plato (the few) and Rousseau (the many) • A mixture of democracy and aristocracy – Aristotle • Plato – Philosophers • Marx – the proletariat • Lenin – the communist party

  4. If the People Rule, Should They Do So Themselves or through Representatives? • The representative system makes it possible, while allowing the people to have the final word, to empower those who stand out for their intelligence, experience, and interest in politics. • Representatives can devote all of their time to government, whereas the people as a whole cannot. • A representative body provides better opportunities for leisured, unemotional deliberation than does a great popular assembly • Direct democracy is workable only in polities that are very small in population

  5. Is It Good to Have Power? • Politics in a good state allows us to realize our fullest human potential – Aristotle • Avoid politics, “live unknown” – Epicurus • A necessary duty - Stoics

  6. Why Obey? • To possess power seems at least to be honorable and glorious • To be under power seem appear to be degrading • Why accept a position of subservience? • Divine right of kings • Consent - Locke • The General Will – Rousseau • The question of revolution

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