Shakespeare on Sovereignty, Indivisibility, and Popular Consent

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella Achilleos
Keyword(s):  
Popular Consent

Voltaire, Philosopher of Human Progress

PMLA ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 74 (4-Part1) ◽  
pp. 356-364
Author(s):  
Virgil W. Topazio
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Other ◽  
Single Addition ◽  
The One ◽  
Natural Philosophers ◽  
Popular Consent ◽  
Positive Knowledge ◽  
Separate Discipline

With the emergence of philosophy in the nineteenth century as a separate discipline which stressed primarily questions insoluble by empirical or formal methods, Voltaire's reputation as a philosopher has gone into gradual eclipse. It has become unfashionable and degrading for philosophers to concern themselves with the practical aspects of philosophical enquiry. In eighteenth-century France, on the other hand, the identification of philosophy with science, which by twentieth-century standards had vitiated philosophical thought, produced the “philosophes” or natural philosophers who were on the whole more interested in human progress than in the progress of the human mind. And Voltaire was by popular consent the leader of this “philosophe” group, the one who had unquestionably contributed the most in the struggle to make man a happier and freer member of society. Yet, ironically, despite a lifelong effort in behalf of humanity, Voltaire's reputation as a destructive thinker has steadily grown even as the critics have pejoratively classified him as a “practical” rather than a “real” philosopher. Typical of this criticism of Voltaire is Macaulay's statement: “Voltaire could not build: he could only pull down: he was the very Vitruvius of ruin. He has bequeathed to us not a single doctrine to be called by his name, not a single addition to the stock of our positive knowledge.”

Political philosophy, Jewish

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam J. Zohar ◽  
Michael Walzer
Keyword(s):  
Legal Tradition ◽  
Modern Democracy ◽  
Divine Sovereignty ◽  
Political Tradition ◽  
The People ◽  
Covenantal Community ◽  
Popular Consent ◽  
State Of Israel ◽  
Central Form ◽  
Equal Concern

Jewish ideas about politics are embedded in the traditional genres of Judaic discourse, more often legal or homiletic than systematically philosophical. A defining feature of this tradition is its historical setting, as for most of their history the Jews lacked a state. Still, central issues of political thought were addressed primarily in the context of Judaism’s characteristic political entity, the medieval kahal – the by and large autonomous urban Jewish community. Discussions of issues such as authority, justice, or membership were informed by the Talmudic legal tradition, by biblical memories of Israel’s monarchic period and by dreams of restoration, inspired by ancient prophecies regarding the messianic era. The central form defining political authority and allegiance is the covenant, enacted at Sinai between God and the Israelite people, whom He had elected and liberated from Egypt. The people recognized God’s supreme authority, consenting to live by His teachings, the Torah. The significance and demands of this divine election, and the parameters and requirements of membership of the covenantal community, are much-debated issues in the Jewish political tradition. Of equal concern are the concrete implications of divine sovereignty. On one view, this precludes any institutionalized form of human authority. On other views, divine authority is invested in one or more of various human agents, from kings and priests to prophets and rabbis; strikingly, the latter used their own reason to interpret God’s words, and in their assemblies would take a vote to decide among interpretations. In uneasy co-existence with these, the tradition includes prominent justifications for human political agency, the legitimacy of which derives not from divine authorization but from popular consent. Living as a (sometimes) tolerated minority under non-Jewish rulers, the Jews dreamed of redemption, imagining the messianic king as leading them to triumph. Yet the foundational tale in Genesis is of humankind as one family, and the biblical prophets envisage world peace. Since 1948 the state of Israel has become the locus for re-examination of the Jewish political tradition. A crucial question has been to what extent this tradition, which includes proto-democratic as well as theocratic elements, can inform political discourse in a modern democracy whose citizens are mostly Jewish but include also significant non-Jewish minorities.

Liberal policy and the control of public order in western Sicily 1860–1862

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. Riall
Keyword(s):  
Public Order ◽  
Local Elites ◽  
New Town ◽  
Western Sicily ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Peasant Revolt ◽  
The Military ◽  
Popular Consent ◽  
Liberal Policy ◽  
Additional Reason

AbstractThis article is concerned with explanations of the failure of stateformation and nation building in liberal Italy, and concentrates on attempts to integrate western Sicily into the new political framework. The marxist account of this process has emphasized the extent of peasant revolt against the new state, and its brutal repression. Unification, it is argued, failed because it was based on coercion and domination rather than on leadership by popular consent. The present article suggests that this explanation is incomplete as it ignores the behaviour and attitude of local elites within western Sicily. The dominance of local affairs by such groups was challenged by the advent of a modern centralizing state. The article uses records from this period to show that many local notables frustrated government efforts to set up new town councils, new police forces and a liberal judicial system. This kind of resistance was far more difficult to overcome than popular revolt, because it could (and did) challenge the whole basis of centralized liberal rule. The article also looks at the military repression of the 1860s and argues that it too was undermined by the opposition of local elites. An additional reason, therefore, for the failure of unification after 1860 may be the new state's lack of appeal among its supposed class allies.

scholarly journals After ‘Security First’: An Analysis of Security Transition and ‘Statebuilding’ in the West Bank 2007-11

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Leech
Keyword(s):  
West Bank ◽  
The West ◽  
Palestinian Society ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Popular Consent

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) imposition of order after the end of the al-Aqsa Intifada has been generally interpreted as a success. Not only did the PA consolidate its power in the West Bank and restore good relations with Israel and the West, it also appeared to obtain popular legitimacy by cracking down on its political opponents. This paper discusses the impact of the PA’s imposition of order in Nablus, a town which had endured lawlessness and disorder under an Israeli siege (2001-7) and had been the focus of the PA’s security agenda. It argues that, though the PA’s security agenda initially enjoyed popular consent, this does not demonstrate public endorsement of the PA’s legitimacy. Rather the consent that such measures produced was superficial and, in the long term, the acceleration of the PA’s shift towards authoritarianism is likely to be profoundly debilitating for Palestinian society in general. 

scholarly journals As time goes by, the same sentiments apply? Stability of voter satisfaction with democracy during the electoral cycle in 31 countries

2020 ◽  
pp. 135406882091246
Author(s):  
Miroslav Nemčok ◽  
Hanna Wass
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Electoral Cycle ◽  
Popular Consent ◽  
Limited Generalizability ◽  
Over Time

Popular consent is an essential element for success and stability of democracies. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that “electoral winners” (i.e. voters casting a ballot for government parties) are more satisfied with democracy than supporters of the opposition parties. However, little is known about the dynamics of satisfaction during the electoral cycle: Do winners become happier and losers even more discontent over time? We approach this question by utilizing an interview date in the European Social Survey (rounds 1–8) to position individuals within the different stages of electoral cycle. The results based on 199,207 responses from 199 surveys in 31 countries suggest that satisfaction with democracy stays relatively stable during the electoral cycle across various electoral systems if the political development is predictable. However, if actions of the parties are uncertain, namely the alternations of governments tend to be frequent, partial, and opened to all parties, and hence neither winners nor losers know how steady their status is with respect to the political development in the country, their satisfaction tend to fluctuate over time. Therefore, the conclusion reached is the more stable West European democracies have limited generalizability to the low-predictable systems in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Dilemma of Balancing Growth and Social Justice

2019 ◽  
pp. 27-49
Author(s):  
Subrata Mitra
Keyword(s):  
Land Reforms ◽  
Industrial Growth ◽  
Developmental States ◽  
Gunnar Myrdal ◽  
Steady Growth ◽  
The Government ◽  
Post War ◽  
Mass Starvation ◽  
Jawaharlal Nehru ◽  
Popular Consent

At Independence in 1947, India emerged from a century and half of economic stagnation, a radicalized and land-hungry peasantry, chronic food deficit and the spectre of mass starvation and famine looming over parts of the country. Faced with similar challenges, post-war ‘developmental states’ followed the course of economic development based on a template of state-controlled economic designs for growth, investment and trade. However, despite the challenge of resettling millions of refugees following the bloody partition of the country, war against Pakistan, and a violent peasant uprising in the South, the government of India, under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, decided to open up all aspects of politics to democratic consultation. Many specialists of the time, including Barrington Moore and Gunnar Myrdal considered a ‘soft-state’, whose power and legitimacy derived from popular consent, to be ill-equipped to take hard decisions such as land reforms, and industrial growth. Contrary to such pessimistic prognoses, India has held together as a strong, stable, emerging economy. One can infer the strength and ingenuity of the Indian model in meeting the twin imperative of growth and justice from the steady growth of Indian economy and democratic consolidation over the past seven decades since Independence.

The Relevance of the Burke-Paine Controversy to American Political Thought

1987 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Canavan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Sole Source ◽  
The United States ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Realistic Interpretation ◽  
American Political Thought ◽  
Popular View ◽  
Political Form ◽  
Popular Consent ◽  
Democratic Constitution

Thomas Paine's social-contract theory, which asserts the protection of individual rights as the sole end of civil society and the consent of the majority of individuals as the sole source of government's authority, may seem to be better suited to the democratic Constitution of the United States than Edmund Burke's theory of prescription of government. Burke's theory is based on the rational moral goals of civil society, not on the supremacy of the people's or any other will. It asserts that the natural ends of society are prior to rights as Paine and other radical democrats conceived of them and that natural obligation is prior to and controls consent. Burke can therefore afford us a more realistic interpretation of popular consent and of the Constitution as the political form that makes us a people. He also offers a useful corrective to the currently popular view of the Supreme Court's function as being primarily to protect an ever-expanding array of constitutional rights. Burke was no democrat but he may help democrats to overcome the limitations of the liberal contractarian model of society.

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