Poli 363 Midterm Flashcards

Question

# Step 1: Marx's Critique of Liberal Democracy What is political emancipation?

Answer 1

- It was a result of revolution to the institutions of inequality. - Political emancipation was: 1) “the emancipation of the state from [...] the religion in general” - Religion represents particularities liberating the state from the private sphere 2) “the emancipation of civil society from politics” - Liberating people from politics

Answer 2

1) Civil society: - The market. Satisfying one’s needs through market exchange. 2) State: - The public domain. Individuals recognizing one another as fellow citizens. 3) Species-being: - A full realization of oneself. **Civil society and state are the most important

Answer 3

- How can we free the Jews? - A letter written by Bauer - However, Marx criticizes Bauer

Answer 4

- You achieve emancipation through constructing a secular state. - State becomes neutral and people participate as citizens that would solve discrimination. - Secular (universal) state “the man frees himself though the medium of the state, that [...] he raises himself above [a] limitation”

Answer 5

- No it does not because religion represents the particular that generates inequality. - The secular state is pushing social distinctions to the private domain, but the issue is private people are also public - Abolishing the property qualification for election is NOT the same as abolishing private property.

Answer 6

- He thinks it is ridiculous that in order to build a secular society you need a private domain. - The secular state affirms social distinctions (civil society) in the process of constructing itself as the universal domain devoid of particularities. - The secular state rejects the possibility that social distinctions can exist publicly - It through affirming that social distinctions are private makes them public, it acknowledges there existence while not acknowledging they exist publicly Overall: Civil society: the realm of factual distinction State: The realm of normative equality

Answer 7

- The ‘political’ nature of the feudal order = economic activities were tied to political obligations (economic life directed by the person of the lord) - Democratic revolutions severed the link between economic and political life by abolishing judicial distinctions. - “The political revolution [...] freed [the political spirit] from its intermixture with civil life, and established it as the [independent] sphere of the community.” - There is no gap between economic activities and political duty - Economic life was political in nature during the feudal time. - Democratic revolutions severed the tie, they no longer define each other.

Answer 8

- They agree on the need for political life, and the division between private and public exists

Answer 9

- Constance believes that political liberty is the most powerful because it promotes self-development, it helps develop characters - Marx believed that individual independence is the source of inequality and unfreedom.

Answer 10

- He believed that Constance was being unrealistic in regard to expectations - Given he is a materialist argues that you can not separate the person and the self - Political revolutions make private life part of politics

Answer 11

- Constance: The private and public domain are separate - Marx: The public domain is overshadowed by the private domain, there is no gap between the two when you participate in politics yourself and are criticized.

Answer 12

- Modern democracy affirms and upholds social distinctions as the source of discriminations and inequalities in everyday life. - Democratic politics cannot do anything to redress those discriminations and inequalities.

Answer 13

- He thinks that modern democracy is doomed because it affirms and holds societal distinctions - State can not be not private, there will always be social inequalities - There is no freedom in modern democracy, even though Constance thinks so

Answer 14

- Modern democracy affirms social distinctions as the source of inequality and discrimination in everyday life. - The advent of modern democracy involves the institution of civil society as an independent domain (from the state). - It may be natural that people may be equal in terms of their citizenship but not outside the political realm.

Answer 15

- Democratic politics is incapable of resolving social inequality and discrimination. - Politics merely reflects and serves the ‘interest’ of civil society. - People in different social strata but only certain strata are represented - Political equality is a facade

Answer 16

- No, you can have a democracy not a society as long as politics is dominated by certain people.

Answer 17

- A particular form of society that has emerged out of a democratic revolution. - It is also a social construct and fictional because we are still void of order.

Answer 18

- Democracy is merely an aggregation of individuals within a certain physical space. - Four other reasons: 1) No rules of disciplines: unlimited (unregulated) freedom, nothing to force behavior, people are free to do what you want with your body 2) No social bond: no meaningful relationship (only contractual relationship at best), no notion of a friendly community,only interact because of contract, it is never genuine, no rules or customs 3) No social script:

Answer 19

- It distributes people where they belong so they can have a sense of community

Answer 20

- In the feudal order everyone automatically knew where they belonged, there were set expectations however, now there are not expectations and people have to find their own sense of community.

Answer 21

Question: - What causes the social disintegration of modern democracy, and how does a democracy achieve its social cohesiveness? Answer: - Liberalism is a source of social disintegration. Democracy achieves unity through the actualization of the will of the people.

Answer 22

- A lover of Nazis and Hitler - Strong Catholic background - Most active during the Weimar period - The ‘Crown Jurist’ of National Socialism (Nazism) until 1936 - One of the most controversial legal and political theorists of the twentieth century

Answer 23

- Schmitt is known as the 20th century Thomas Hobbes - His main focus were the same as Hobbes security and stability

Answer 24

- The advent of ‘mass’ democracy - The inability of modern society to implement and guarantee order and security in the face of heterogeneous masses - Integration of lower class into politics - Development of less homogenous - Modern democracy can not handle mass immigration

Answer 25

- The political experiment of the Weimar Republic - Extensive civil and political rights, some 40 political parties, vibrant civil society, 240 emergency measures - Women got political rights

Answer 26

- Liberal democracy is incapable of making a collective decision, let alone a meaningful one. - The problem is not on democracy, it is on liberalism

Answer 27

- Between liberalism and democracy - Liberalism divides and democracy unites

Answer 28

Liberalism: - Principle: Freedom and g eneral human equality - Practice: parliamentary democracy Democracy: - Principle: Substantial equality - Dictatorship

Answer 29

- It is an actualization of liberal principle of democracy - It is a set of procedures does not give meaningful connections between peoples - There to overlook whether individuals go beyond their private realm - Political realm for Schmitt there is meaning in rules and relationships

Answer 30

- Based on the metaphysical or ‘theological’ conviction that: 1) The truth and harmony can be achieved by “an unrestrained clash” of conflicting opinions ( “a dialect-dynamic process of discussion”) 2) An equilibrium can be arrived at by a moderate and balanced discussion

Answer 31

- That while it worked in early history it does not work now - Collaboration required to make a decision not the same as during a kingship - The logic is metaphysical - Based on the idea of openness and discussion - People reach consensus based on unrestrained conversation

Answer 32

- It is liberal because it is unrestrained - Exchange = good for society - Market = establish price - Members = establish laws - People engage in moderate discussion = equilibrium - Difference between private and public

Answer 33

- The incorporation of ‘masses’ into politics (mobilization as opposed to discussion) - The rise of radical parties (ex., communists and Nazis) cause confrontation as opposed to communication

Answer 34

- Pursuing (material) self- interest was never the sore intention behind founding modern democracy.

Answer 35

- ‘Limited government’ is never the final goal and purpose of modern democracy.

Answer 36

- One of the most influential political theorists in the twentieth century - Born into a German-Jewish family, fled Germany in 1933 and immigrated to the United States in 1941 - A political theorist and commentator

Answer 37

- Major works include Origins of Totalitarianism, Human Condition, and On Revolution - Wrote about the issue of racism, war etc - Did not write any feminist theory

Answer 38

- Revolution does not bring modern democracy (liberty, equality, fraternity)

Answer 39

- Liberty: Freedom to sell one’s labor in the market (form a contract) leading to alienation - Equality: The right to private property leading to economic inequality - Fraternity: The right to private property constituting individuals as “an isolated monad”:

Answer 40

- Not necessarily but he went in this direction

Answer 41

- How does constitutional democracy makes individuals free and equal while generating a sense of community among them.

Answer 42

- By redefining freedom and equality in a political (as opposed to an economic) term.

Answer 43

1) Free in the sense that they constantly shape the political community in an unpredictable and original way (through act and speech). 2)Equal in the sense that they are neither ruled by others nor ruling others. 3)Collective in the sense that they construct the common world by deciding with others.

Answer 44

- The (common) world-building activity It involves, action/speech, appearance, plurality, in-betweenness, spontaneity, freedom, power Human beings use speech to persuade others and exchange ideas

Answer 45

- She associates freedom with what is generated from speech.

Answer 46

- No, because action/speech requires plurality of individuals and totalitarianism does not allow for space.

Answer 47

- She defines humans in terms of act and speech. - Constructing a common world together with others through deliberation - It is in the public sphere

Answer 48

- Unlike Marx who defines it in terms of labor and work - Labor: what humains or any living animals do for their survival - Work: making instruments for consumption Private sphere

Answer 49

- Both her and him suggest that human beings are speech animals - Speech is a unique quality of human beings

Answer 50

- Because it has led to the privatization of the political realm - The public sphere has become dominated by household affairs (economy) - We can no longer find speech in our life - Labour has become the dominant agenda. - We love politics when we start talking about economic growth. - We love integrity as a community by speaking of the economy in politics

Answer 51

- He defines it as the non-subjection to arbitrary power - This is the modern conception

Answer 52

- Collective self-determination

Answer 53

- Individual liberty [...] is the true modern liberty. Political liberty is its guarantee, consequently political liberty is indispensable.” - “Individual independence is the first need of the moderns: consequently one must never require from them any sacrifices to establish political liberty”

Answer 54

- He believes in limited government similar to Hobbes - There is a sovereign that governs everyone in the public domain.

Answer 55

- [...] the Constitution was by no means the safeguard of civil liberties but the establishment of an entirely new system of power (147).” - “[...] the main question for [the founders] certainly was not how to limit power but how to establish it, not how to limit government but how to found a new one (148).”

Answer 56

- What are the founding principles of constitutional democracy that have come to determine this new society’s character is it not for limiting government.

Answer 57

- You give reasons for existence of constitutional democracy - Mutual promise, the separation between power and law, checks and balances, and the bottom-up legitimation process

Answer 58

- It is the “world-building capacity of man” - It is the source of constant confusion - This constant confusion does not relate well with two types of social contract theory

Answer 59

- He did not understand the distinction between ‘consent’ and mutual promise

Answer 60

1) Mutual promise 2) Social contract/mutual subjection

Answer 61

- People join a community based on reciprocity promises - But as an agreement in which an individual person resigns his power to some higher authority and consent to be ruled in exchange for a reasonable protection of his life and property

Answer 62

- Arendt does not support this view - Involves surrendering your rights to a higher authority (169). - You give up your rights and powers - There are two types

Answer 63

1) Between individuals and supposedly give birth to society (concludes between individuals) 2) Between a people and its ruler and supposedly resulted in legitimate government (169)

Answer 64

- For Arendt revolution does not presuppose the creation of law. - Law comes from the people - “Both power and law were anchored in the nation [...], which remained outside and above all governments and all laws (163).” (= the nation as ‘constituent power’) - “[...] the so-called the will of a multitude is ever-changing by definition, and that a structure built on it as its foundation is built on quicksand (163).”

Answer 65

- Because the law comes from the people, and the will of the people is continuously changing, it leads to unstable laws and subsequently a dictatorship.

Answer 66

- Arendt argues that there was the question of the sovereign people during the American Revolution - There is a distinction between a constitution and the people, which leads to a fragile constitution - In the United States no one questions the legitimacy of the constitution because the constitution gave the american revolutionaries a way to act.

Answer 67

- Because the people are not the constitution - In America there were self governing bodies prior to the constitution - Meaning of the constitution was now to conduct communication between the pre-existing government type bodies. - The Constitution limits one's power but also limits it.

Answer 68

- The representatives are not the representatives who are autonomous but rather decisions are made at the distinct level-up order (bottom up) - The most legitimate process is not top-down but bottom up

Answer 69

- Cooperative rather than competitive - Exercised horizontally rather than vertically - Emerges between individuals rather than being possessed - Produces rather than negates - Power implied ‘power-with’ (vr. ‘power-against’)

Answer 70

- “[...] power [is] engendered by action and kept by [mutual] promises (176).”