Midterm 1 Flashcards
What are the 6 forms of government
Tyranny, monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, democracy, polity
What is tyranny
Ruled by one person, for their own interest
What is monarchy
Ruled by one person, for the people’s interests
What is oligarchy
Ruled by the few, for the fews own interest
What is aristocracy
Ruled by the few, for the people’s interest
Democracy
Ruled by the many, for the interest of the people
Polity
Ruled by the many, for the interest of the many
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
Themes: fear, war, peace
Materialism
Felicity
Worst condition for humans is to be without a recognized state authority
Materialism
Bodies will move in constant motion, even the brain “reasoning is but reckoning”
Felicity
Continual happiness in achieving changing needs
Human beings seek…
Felicity and power
Predominantly self regarding, Status conscious, death average, equally vulnerable to one another
Hobbes says like without the state would be:
Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short
Why is the natural right of liberty
The freedom to do whatever we take to be necessary in order to preserve ourselves
What are Hobbes “laws of nature”
Fundamental law: seek peace if you can get it
- Lay down your natural right if others do too
- Perform your convenants
The laws of nature bind us to…
Our internal forum (our minds)
If we suspect that others don’t follow the laws…
We will not follow them and make ourselves vulnerable
The state is needed to…
Provide incentives for people to follow the laws
Anyone who lays down their natural right is a “sucker”
John Locke (1632-1704)
Natural abundance of land
State of nature behinds as a state of peace
The state can protect us from a state of war
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
- humans desire self preservation
- natural savages differ from corrupted human beings
- scarcity creates a problem; self preservation trumps pity
Rousseau says the solitary natural man only desires…
Food, sex, sleep
Rousseau says the natural man has free will to generate a range of developments (such as …) that develop…
- tool-making -> language -> agriculture
- social emotions, eventually creates private property, inequality and war
If we are naturally free and equal
state authority is not legitimate unless citizens of the state consent to it
What are the 3 ways to justify political obligations
Associative duties
Transactions
Natural duties
Associative duties
Special requirements attached to the unchosen role or status of citizen
Transactions
ex. Receiving benefits from the state or making a promise to obey
Natural duties
General moral requirement to promote happiness or justice
Social contract tradition
The belief that there should be an actual, voluntary contract to express consent to the state
(This contract does not exist)
Express consent
Many individuals have never actually consented to the state
Tacit consent
Implicit or understood
Hypothetical consent
In the stage of natural, rational individuals would consent to create a state; therefore the state is legitimate
Locke’s argument: two options available regarding laws
- A publicly agreed, shared set of laws
2. Defer to private judgements about the content of laws
Utilitarianism
The right action is the one that maximizes utility, happiness, or wellbeing (3 parts)
What are the 3 parts to utilitarianism?
Theory of good (utility, happiness)
Commitment to equal concern
Requirement of maximization (produce as much good as possible)
Direct utilitarianism
Each individual decision should be made to maximize happiness
Indirect utilitarianism
Laws should be made to maximize total happiness, analyze what makes a law morally right
Criticisms of utilitarianism
Too demanding for humans to follow
Too permissive
Fairness in utilitarianism
Those who receive benefits must pay their fair share of the burden by providing those benefits
Nozick’s question:
If others force benefits on me, am I obliged to reciprocate?
Democracy
Rule by the people
Gives each citizen an equal day at some stage of the process
The collective is ruling itself
What are the 4 dimensions of democracy
Directness of decisions
Accountability of representatives
Equality of opportunity for influence
Scope of authority of democratic will
Directness of decisions
indirect forms of political decision making where voters choose representatives who make particular policy choices
Accountability of representatives
Extreme: representatives can be immediately recalled
Extreme lack of: representatives are elected for life
What is ‘retrospective recall’
Voters get an opportunity to vote for a new representative every so often
Equality of opportunity for influence
Affected by economic inequalities
Economic sphere are effects on political sphere
Scope of authority of democratic will
Issues open to democratic decision vs. left for individuals to decide for themselves
What are the two ways to limit the scope of democracy?
By appealing to the democratic ideal
By assigning the issue to the private sphere
When and where did democracy originate
6th century Greece, disappeared for centuries then was reborn in a different guise
Plato’s objection to philosophy
Democracy is rule by people who are unskilled in ruling; bad form of rule
Believed philosophers should rule
Benevolent dictatorship
Intrinsic reasons for pro democracy
- Self rule (enables individuals to rule themselves)
- Self realization
- Commitment to equality of persons
Instrumental reasons - consequences of democracy
- Produces better decisions
- Produces better citizens
- Perceived as legitimate
John Stuart Mill
Author of On Liberty
Liberty/harm principle
You may justifiably limit a persons freedom of action only if they threaten harm to another
Stages of development of liberty
Contest between subjects and government
Development of democratic government
19th century recognition that democratic majorities themselves be tyrannical
Threat of social tyranny
Sarah Conley
coercive paternalism
We are not the best judges of what we want
Optimism bias
Irrational optimism
We tend not to take appropriate steps to benefit ourselves
Status quo bias
Valuing what we already have more than alternatives
We resist new laws that would improve our lives
Harm vs offence
People have a right of protection from harm, not from being offended
Why is liberty valuable
Liberty is comparable to enjoyment, both are intrinsically valuable
Mill on Liberty
ONLY harm to others and offences against decency limit liberty
Marx on money
Can transform human relationships
Universal whore and pimp
Justifying property rights - Utility
Goods to be distributed in way that’ll maximize happiness and well being
JPR - Natural rights
Right to private property
Free market capitalism with minimal state
Forced redistribution is illegitimate
JPR - Freedom
Rawls liberal egalitarianism combines freedom and equality
Redistribution
Unrestricted free market
“income parade”
Done in the 70’s - Jan Pen
Conveyed shocking reality of income inequality
Income inequality
Richest 5% = 1/3 of global income
Poorest 80% = 1/3 of global income
1.4 billion people live on less than $1.425 a day
Wealth inequality in Canada
46 billionaires = bottom 14 million
Global wealth inequality
The worlds richest 1% have more wealth than the other 99%
Richest 62 have as much wealth as the poorest half of the worlds population
Rousseau on private property
Fruits of earth belong to us all
Earth itself belongs to no iffy
Nozick on private property - 3 different principles
Justice in initial acquisition
Justice in transfer
Rectification of injustice
John Locke on right to private property
- Survival
- Labour mixing
- Value added
- Desert
Survival
Mankind is to be preserved as much as possible
Leave enough and and as good for others
Doesn’t justify property rights
Labour mixing
Individuals own themselves and their labour
Unfair to those unable to work
Mixing does not equal ownership
Value added
Labour adds value to nature
Doesn’t justify claiming the property
Desert
Those who work productively deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labour
Unfair to those who can’t work
Upshot of Locke’s argument
Difficult to justify an account of initial acquisition of property
Focus on market system
The Market
Who owns what?
Why do people produce?
How are goods distributed?
Want determined which goods get produced?
Pure capitalist free market
Private property rights
Goods produced for profit
Goods distributed by voluntary trade
Free competition
Planned economy
State owns all major property
Production for needs not profits
Distribution by central allocation
State controls what gets produced
Modified free market
Some state owned enterprises
Some voluntary distribution
Sale of some goods is prohibited
Some state enforced monopolies
Arguments against the market is
Wasteful, alienating, explosive, generates unjust inequalities
Improving the free market
Internalize the externalities
State can make it illegal to produce some goods with negative externalities
State provides public goods and taxes citizens to pay for them
Rawls on distributive justice
Veil of ignorance
‘People in the original position’ (POPs)
These people only know they want primary goods (liberties, opportunities, wealth, income)
What would POPs choose?
Rational choice theory
Utility maximization: maximizing average utility
POPs would follow maximin theory
Maximaxers
Take high risk
Achieving greatest possible outcome even when it is irrational and unlikely
Maximin
Maximize the minimum
Worst possible outcome is as good as can be
Liberty principle
Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system
Why does Rawls reject utility
It fails to recognize the distinction between persons
Politics
Social process or activities where individuals/groups with conflicting interests or views reach binding decisions about what to do
5 part line
Social -> process -> conflict -> binding decisions -> enforced
The state
Territorial, sovereign community
Authority
Legitimate power
Power
Ability to produce results
Coercion
Hard power
Soft power
Hard power
The stick - force and coercion, military, police
The carrot - economic inducement, bribes, sanctions
Soft power
Attraction, getting others to want what you want
State of nature
A “thought experiment” in which we imagine our world without the stage
Anarchism
State coercion is unjustified
Cooperation vendors ecerhone
Principle of fairness
Those who receive benefits must pay their fair share of the burden of providing those benefits
Intrinsic reason
Reasons democracy is good in itself
Autonomy
Self rule
Instrumental reason
Value democracy has on society
Market model
Candidates market themselves to citizens
Forum model
Debate and discussion shapes citizens desires
