The Institutionalization of Power Poli 110J 02 Revolution, Rights & Truth.

The Institutionalization of Power Poli 110J 02

Revolution, Rights & Truth

Course Website

• adamgomez.wordpress.com/teaching/110JFA2010

Causes of Revolution

• Economic exploitation by England– Taxation, forcible quartering of soldiers, violation of

property rights

• Legal domination– British soldiers to be tried only in England, forced

alteration of MA charter, restriction of town meetings

• Governmental oppression– Colonies have no say in taxation, diminished voice in

own gov’t

Thomas Paine

• B. Feb. 9 1737, Thetford, England• Arrives in American colonies 1774• Common Sense: 1776• Rights of Man: 1790, supporting French

Revolution, elected to National Convention, imprisoned by Robespierre 1793

• Age of Reason: 1794, 1795, 1807• Returns to US 1803• Dies 1809

Common Sense

• January, 1776• Massively influential– Before its publication, about 1/3 of American

colonials supported the break from Britain, 1/3 opposed, and 1/3 were undecided

– After, it was closer to 2/3 in favor of Revolution• Focused strongly on the containment of

governmental power– Reason vs. passion, tradition

Common Sense

• Against the power of tradition & emotion:• “Perhaps the sentiments contained in the

following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.” (section 1)

Common Sense

• Against the power of tradition & emotion:• “The prejudice of Englishmen, in favor of their

own government by king, lords, and commons, arises as much or more from national pride than reason.”

Common Sense

• Against the power of tradition & emotion:• “The will of the king is as much the law of the

land in Britain as in France, with this difference, that instead of proceeding directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people under the most formidable shape of an act of parliament. For the fate of Charles the First, hath only made kings more subtle not more just.”

Common Sense

• Against the power of tradition & emotion:• “Wherefore, laying aside all national pride and

prejudice in favor of modes and forms, the plain truth is, that it is wholly owing to the constitution of the people, and not to the constitution of the government that the crown is not as oppressive in England as in Turkey.” (section 2)

Common Sense• Against the power of tradition & emotion:– Disinterested reason should be the guide to political

action– “In the following pages I offer nothing more than

simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense; and have no other preliminaries to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his feelings to determine for themselves; that he will put on, or rather that he will not put off, the true character of a man, and generously enlarge his views beyond the present day.” (section 4)

Common Sense

• Reason is believed to be– Impartial & unbiased– A method of reaching universal & definitive truth– Comprehensible by anyone not blinded by passion

or bias, regardless of social station (“common sense”)

• Thus, it is for Paine the source of just political authority

Common Sense

• What’s so bad about kings? (section 3)– Nature does not sanction division of men into

Kings and Subjects. It is only customary.– The State of Nature as tool of criticism• A government must not make things worse than they

are in the State of Nature if they are to deserve compliance

• What’s so bad about kings?The Bible, often used as a source of legitimacy by kings,

is in fact anti-monarchical• Samuel vs. a King for Israel (1 Samuel 8)

– God & Samuel oppose (only God is king)– People demand king– Taxation, war, oppression the costs of kingship

• Capturing the past

Thus, kingship is purely a human creation, no more inherently valid or necessary than any other.

Common Sense• What’s so bad about kings?• Hereditary succession is both unjust and

impractical– Gives “an ass in place of a lion” for future generations

(bad successors)– causes kings to think of themselves as a race apart,

corrupts them– Puts the throne in hands of child or a (likely corrupt)

regent– Instead of protecting against civil wars, HS promotes

them. Would-be rulers can only come to power by force

Common Sense

• Why is independence necessary? (sect. 4)– England is violently oppressive, exploiting America

for the good of England– England is too far away to govern America

effectively, even if it wanted to.– Being a part of the British Empire will inevitably

involve America in unnecessary imperial conflicts.

Common Sense

• By grounding political authority in reason, Paine is able to make a persuasive argument undermining the foundations of British government, which is based in tradition, religion, and custom.

Common Sense

• “Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness Positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.”– The true end of government is security. (sect. 2)

Common Sense

• What is the basis of just government?• Paine quotes Dragonetti: “The science of the

politician consists in fixing the true point of happiness and freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of individual happiness, with the least national expense.”

Common Sense

• What is the basis of just government?– Freedom– Happiness– Efficiency

Common Sense

• How does Paine propose to achieve this?– Commerce– Local government with weak central government– Religious toleration– Rule of Law

Common Sense

• Commerce will lead to peace and prosperity:• “Our plan is commerce, and that, well

attended to, will secure us the peace and friendship of all Europe; because it is the interest of all Europe to have America a free port. Her trade will always be a protection, and her barrenness of gold and silver secure her from invaders.” (sect. 4)

Common Sense

• Local government with weak central government (sect. 5)

• Each colony equally represented• Each colony retains sovereignty• Weak executive (needs 60% congressional approval to

pass laws)• Continental Charter, guaranteeing political freedom,

property, freedom of religion

Common Sense

• Religious toleration (sect. 5)• “As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable

duty of all government, to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government hath to do therewith… Were we all of one way of thinking, our religious dispositions would want matter for probation; and on this liberal principle, I look on the various denominations among us, to be like children of the same family”

Common Sense• Rule of Law (sect. 5)• “Let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the

charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is. A government of our own is our natural right.”

Common Sense

• American exceptionalism:• “The sun never shined on a cause of greater

worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a country, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now.” (sect. 1)

Common Sense

• “Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct; and let none other be heard among us, than those of a good citizen, an open and resolute friend, and a virtuous supporter of the RIGHTS of MANKIND and of the FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES OF AMERICA.” (sect. 6)– What does it mean to define your cause as that of

all humanity?

Declaration of Independence

• Should the 13 Colonies declare independence from Britain?

• July 1, 1776: vote 9 yes (New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, Rhode Island) 3 no (Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Delaware) 1 abstaining (NY lacked permission)

• July 2: Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Delaware change votes. “Unanimous”

Declaration of Independence

• We are reading the third draft. Jefferson was the sole author of the first, but it was revised in order to preserve the unity of the rebellious colonies.– Removal by congress of passage critical of the slave

trade• July 4, approved and sent to printer.• Was it a revolution?• The Declaration of Independence is the first

utterance of the United States of America– Speaking the nation into existence (performative)

Declaration of Independence

• “When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.”

Declaration of Independence

• State of Nature• Laws of Nature (Locke) and Nature’s God

(Deism?)• Legitimacy of Rebellion• Keen awareness that the attention of the

world is on the United States• First democratic government since classical

times

Declaration of Independence

• “WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”

Declaration of Independence

• If the truths are self-evident, why bother saying them?

• Why then do they need to be “held”?• How does this influence the nature of the

American state?– Written in the voice of a single, national people– The US is not a community of shared blood or

culture, but of shared belief.

Declaration of Independence

• The role of God, “the Creator”:• Who is he?– Deism vs. Revealed Religion

• What is his political function?– The source of political rights

• Political rights are an intrinsic part of being human.

Declaration of Independence

• What does it mean for all men to be created equal? Equal how?

• Is God (of some kind) necessary for this to be true?

• In the first utterance of the united American nation, equality is the foundational political good, and the basis for political liberty.– Equality is thus a first order good.

Declaration of Independence

• “That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Declaration of Independence

• The purpose of government is the preservation of rights– Stemming from equality

• An inherent right to revolution• Organization of power to be determined by

“the people.”– Again, the people are prior, as are their security

and happiness, to the government.

Declaration of Independence

• “when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.”

Declaration of Independence

• Right and Duty– Duty how?– What is the relationship in this between positive

and negative liberty?• Freedom

Declaration of Independence

• Emerging tensions: – Which has priority, liberty or equality?– Is the United States an alliance of independent

states, or is it a single, national people?