Understanding Society: From Ancient Philosophies to Modern Governance
Introduction
According to Aristotle, man is a political animal, inherently sociable.
Rationale
Similar to Plato’s view, individuals cannot survive solely on their own and must rely on others.
Philosophical Perspectives
Rousseau
Rousseau argued that man is good by nature, but society corrupts him.
Hobbes
Hobbes, an English empiricist, believed that man is inherently bad, selfish, and prone to war.
Grass
Grass posited that no society exists without organization, and every society has a different way of organizing itself.
Historical Forms of Society
Tribal Society
In tribal societies, the paterfamilias (head of the family) leads the tribe for survival.
Slave Society
Slave societies were prevalent in ancient empires.
Feudal Society
In feudal societies, lords owned the land, and serfs worked it in a subsistence economy. Everything was ranked and organized by classes, with no social mobility.
Religious Organization
The idea was that the world was a plagiarism of the future world. This concept originated with Constantine, who converted to Christianity. The formerly persecuted became the new persecutors. The Church organized itself like the Roman Empire:
- The Pope, as God’s representative on Earth, held supreme power, wielding the spiritual sword.
- Kings held the temporal sword but were subordinate to the spiritual authority.
- Religious rules were the rules of society.
- There was no civil society.
This system began to break down in the fourteenth century, following the ideas of William of Ockham (the father of nominalism). This type of society ultimately died in the modern age with the Enlightenment and the declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen. Ideologically, modern society emerged, with the economy (capitalism) and the creation of mass production taking precedence.
Democracy and Modern Society
Democracy was implemented starting in the eighteenth century, influenced by empiricists like Hobbes, Locke, and Hume.
Montesquieu
Montesquieu proposed that while the king might command, Parliament makes the decisions, and the judiciary remains separate (executive, legislative, and judicial branches). Civil society consists of families, societies, businesses, and partnerships, which are separate from this structure.
Max Weber
Max Weber defined the state as an institutional association within a given territory that successfully monopolizes legitimate violence as an instrument of domination.
Legitimization of Sovereignty
Sovereignty is legitimized when all people accept that there is a government that can lead others. This occurs through:
- Charismatic Domination: When the leader earns the respect of the subjects. This often leads to unstable rule.
- Traditional Process: Power is based on traditions and customs.
- Rational-Legal Process: Legal procedures ensure citizen participation and development, utilizing state bureaucracy and citizenry (characteristics of the modern state).
Basic Forms of Social Order
- The Articles of Incorporation: The state decides the law that upholds all laws (without these, there is no social order).
- No social order is just unless it guarantees the freedom of everyone in the exercise of their rights. Only then is state coercion over citizens legitimate.
Kant’s Mission Statement
- Uphold the principle of freedom for each member.
- Uphold the principle of the dependence of all on common law.
- Uphold the principle of equality before the law for all subjects.
“An individual’s freedom ends where another’s begins.”