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 s e c o n d e d i t i o n

WESTERN
POLITICAL
THOUGHT
From Socrates to the Age of Ideology

Brian R. Nelson
Florida International University

WAVELAND

PRESS, INC.
Long Grove, Illinois
For information about this book, contact:
Waveland Press, Inc.
4180 IL Route 83, Suite 101
Long Grove, IL 60047-9580
(847) 634-0081
[email protected]
www.waveland.com

Copyright © 1996, 1982 by Brian R. Nelson

This book was previously published by Pearson Education, Inc.
Reissued 2015 by Waveland Press, Inc.

10-digit ISBN 1-4786-2763-8

13-digit ISBN 978-1-4786-2763-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys-
tem, or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from
the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 To the Memory of
CARL O. NELSON
My father
and
MARY F. NELSON
My mother
Contents

Preface xi

Introduction 1

PART I CLASSICAL AND MEDIEVAL

POLITICAL THEORY

1 Socrates 5

The pre-Socratics; being versus becoming; Socrates and the Sophists; empirical
versus ethical knowledge; virtue as an ethical standard; virtue as happiness; the
ethical and the political; virtue and society; virtue as knowledge and virtue as
power; nature and convention; the problem of pleasure and pain; the unity of
ethics and politics; philosophy and civil disobedience; the Socratic epistemol­
ogy and the Socratic method; the concept and a priori knowledge; opinion ver­
sus knowledge; the cosmic order.

v
vi Contents

2 Plato 23

Plato: the unity of philosophy and politics; the Academy and the trip to Syra­
cuse; the question of Justice; the ideal and the best possible state; Justice as the
interest of the stronger party; the case for injustice; the Just state and the Just
man; the unity of ethics and politics; Justice and the division of labor; the para­
dox of philosophic rulership; communism and education; the Good; the theory
of form; Plato's dualism; politics and the cave; public opinion as sophistry; the
decline of the ideal state and the unjust man; the myth of metals and the injus­
tice of politics; individual versus political ethics; the tyranny of reason.

3 Aristotle 51

Plato's influence; the Lyceum; political science as a practical science; the theory
of immanent form; matter and form; actuality and potentiality; teleology; the
unity of ethics and politics; virtue as reasoned action; virtue as a mean; virtue
and opinion; the state and subordinate communities; the state and the good life;
the private and public domains; form and constitution; the classification of con­
stitutions; constitutional types and social class; polity and the mixed constitu­
tion; Justice as the rule of law; Justice as proportional equality; the aristocratic
ideal; the critique of Plato; the radical versus the conservative temperament.

4 Cicero 69

Cicero and the classical tradition; Alexander the Great and the age of empire; the
Hellenistic age and the new schools; Skepticism and the New Academy; Cicero's
eclecticism; individualism, subjectivism, and cosmopolitanism; universal equal­
ity and apolitical virtue; Cynicism, Epicureanism , and the theory of contract;
Stoicism: natural law and the two cities; fate and the rational will; politics as
duty; the statesman-philosopher; the res-pUblica; Cicero, Caesar, and Augustus;
the concordia ordinum and the senatorial ideal; the Scipionic Circle and hu­
manitas; the commonwealth and natural law; commonwealth and civitas; Poly­
bius and the composite state; the theory of the ideal republic; natural law, civil
law, and justice; Cicero as conservative; law as political philosophy; the unity
of law and magistracy; consuls and tribunes; the Senate and the rule of wisdom;
the people's assemblies and republican liberty; the failure of the classical city­
state model; the Principate and the end of the Republic; the rise of Christianity.

5 St. Augustine 103

The evolution of Roman law; Justinian's codification; the col/apse of the Roman
Empire; the decline of political philosophy; political withdrawal and the Stoi­
cism of Seneca and Marcus Aurelius; Plotinus and neo-Platonism; philosophy,
religion, and salvation; the rise of Christianity; St. Augustine and the origins of
Christian political philosophy; St. Augustine's Maniclwen dualism; sin and the
Christian concept of evil; the psychology of evil; the two cities; the value of
peace; the state as convention; the displacement of the classical vision; the sep­
aration of ethics and politics; the decline of political theory; the theocratic the­
ory of the state; sin as a political solution; Augustinian political analysis and
the theory of realpolitik.
 Contents vii

6 St. Thomas Aquinas 123

The Church and the nation-state; the rediscovery of Aristotle and the synthesis
of classical and Christian thought; John of Salisbury and the organic metaphor;
St. Thomas's Aristotelianism; the monarchical ideal; teleological naturalism
and Christian spiritualism; the natural and the supernatural; the hierarchy of
law; human reason and natural law; natural law as participation in eternal law;
the compatibility of political and spiritual life; human nature: the predominance
of reason; the supremacy of the sacred and the legitimacy of the secular; theology,
philosophy,faith, and reason; liberation from the metaphor of the two cities; the
disintegration of the Thomistic synthesis; the disjunction of ethics and politics.

PART II MODERN POLITICAL THEORY

7 Machiavelli 137

Machiavelli and the Renaissance; realism and empiricism; the decline of feu­
dalism and the emergence of the modern nation-state; Machiavelli and nation­
alism; the modern conception of human nature; the rules of power politics; the
anti-Machiavellian tradition; the logic of violence and the art of manipulation;
popular rule and political stability; Machiavelli's republicanism; civic virtue,
pluralism, and equality; a political religion,a theology of action; power versus
authority; the Platonic order inverted; modern sophistry; virtue as power; au­
thority as illusion; the divorce of ethics and politics; ethical naturalism; the
state as an end in itself; the illusion of nationalism; virtue and fortune.

8 Hobbes 161

The Reformation and the nation-state; the Puritan revolution and the scientific
revolution; the revolt against Aristotle; materialism and the new empiricism;
body and motion; mathematical truth and nominalism; the physics of psychol­
ogy; knowing and willing; appetite and aversion,pleasure and pain; the will to
power; the rejection of the Socratic conception offreedom; the modern theory of
contract; consent versus divine right; the state as rationally constructed ma­
chine; human behavior and the state of nature; the compositive and resolutive
methods; the state of war; the paradox of power; the modern theory of natural
law; the theory of absolutism; the theory of sovereignty; the paradox of consent;
law as command; the nominalist theory of justice; the language of power; mod­
ern Hobbesianism; the theory of the negative state; power and self-interest;
Hobbes's sovereign and the weakness of power; Hobbes and the summum
bonum; modern science and the theory of authority.

9 Locke 193

Locke and liberal democracy; the Glorious Revolution; radical individualism

and the negative state; Locke and Hobbes: materialism, empiricism, and nomi­
nalism; the tabula rasa and the theory of toleration; Locke versus Hobbes and
Filmer; paternal versus political power; the theory of contract reconsidered; the
state of nature and natural law; the two-stage contract; popular sovereignty;
the right of revolution; the state of nature reconsidered; the right of property;
viii Contents

natural right; money and the right of accumulation; the Protestant ethic and
equality of opportunity; utilitarianism, naturalism, and natural law; the separa­
tion of powers; executive prerogative; Locke and liberal constitutionalism; the
problem of social class; property and the right to vote; women, patriarchy, and
the social contract; liberal democracy and capitalism; Locke's ambivalence and
the paradox of liberal consciousness.

10 Rousseau 221

The loss of natural liberty; the Enlightenment; the psychopathology of a politi­

cal theorist; social inequality and the perversion of reason; the theory of con­
tract; Hobbes and Locke revised; the nature of natural man; a civilized
misreading of the state of nature; the contract: justice versus instinct; the unity
of sovereignty and liberty; popular sovereignty reconsidered; the unity of force
and freedom; the general will; the unity of self-interest and public interest; lib­
erty as obligation; positive versus negative liberty; the positive versus the nega­
tive state; the ideal state and social equality; economics as a moral concern;
censorship, civil religion, and patriotism; the theory of sovereignty revised; the
will of all versus the general will; the problem of government; the theory of will
and forms of government; the aristocratic ideal; the unity of ethics and politics;
power versus authority; the conventional basis of morality; the rejection of nat­
ural law and natural right; the critique of the nation state; the ambiguity of the
general will; the contradictions of Western political thought.

PART III CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL

THEORY

11 Conservatism 259

The French Revolution and the Rights of Man; Napoleoll and liberal democracy;
Edmund Burke and the Holy Alliance; the Whigs and the Glorious Revolution;
Burke as reformer; popular versus philosophical conservatism; the critique of
liberalism; natural versus prescriptive rights; philosophy versus politics; pre­
sumption; prejudice and the reason of history; the organic view of society; pru­
dence or the art of statesmanship; reform versus change; the theory of virtual
representation; the French Revolution and the destruction of authority; mass so­
ciety, tyranny, and the paradox of liberal individualism; Burke's Aristotelian­
ism; the critique of ideology; the sociology of ideology and the democratization
of political ideas; ideology, war, and revolution; the limitations of Burke's vision;
the historical problem; romanticism and reaction; conservatism as an ideology.

12 Classical Liberalism 281

Hume and u tilitarianism ; Bentham: the rejection of natural law and natural
right; the ethics of utility; the greatest happiness of the greatest number; the in­
dividualistic conception of community; utility and majoritarianism; the science
of pleasure and the felicific calculus; law as artificial consequences; the legisla­
tor as social scientist; James Mill: utility and liberal democracy; the reform of
representation in parliament; property and pleasure; government and commu­
nity; representative democracy and the liberal theory of representation; Hobbes
 Contents ix

and Locke united; the economic theory of classical liberalism; the physiocrats,
Adam Smith, and laissez faire capitalism; the unseen hand and enlightened self­
interest; Herbert Spencer and Social Darwinism; classical liberalism and the
condition of the working class; the political failure of the middle class.

13 Modern Liberalism 298

De Tocqueville: the sociology of democracy; the tyranny of the majority; equality

and liberty; public opinion and bureaucratic despotism; pluralism, mass society,
and the theory of association; the social structure of democracy; John Stuart Mill:
utilitarianism revised; the quality of pleasure and the superior individual; simple
expediency versus higher values; the revised theory of liberty; moral progress and
the quest for truth; proportional representation and mass education; TH. Green
and the Oxford Idealists; German idealism and modern liberalism; the classical
view and the rejection of utilitarianism; the unity of will and reason; the theory of
positive freedom; the social basis of rights; the right of property and the positive
state; modern versus classical liberalism; modern liberalism in theory and prac­
tice: ambiguities and paradoxes; self-development as social engineering; democ­
racy: moral progress versus moral anarchy; liberal ideals and the civilized state.

14 Marxism 326

Marx: scientific versus utopian socialism; the materialist conception of history

and the critique of idealism; the historical acts and the relations of production;
property and the division of mental and material labor; history as class conflict;
life and consciousness; substructure and superstructure; ideology as false con­
sciousness; idealism as ideology; the inevitability of communism; capital, profit,
and surplus value; the labor theory of value; the theory of alienation; the law of
the falling rate of profit and the anarchy of production; the dialectic; Marx ver­
sus Hegel; the historical significance of the working class; the unity of theory
and practice; revolution as an epistemology; communism and the end of alien­
ation; liberalism as alienated theory; Marx as antipolitical theorist; Eduard
Bernstein and revisionism; Lenin's theory of imperialism; the party; spontaneity
versus consciousness; Marxism and nationalism; Marxism and the end of com­
munism and the rebirth of Marxism; Marxism as ideology.

15 The Age of Ideology 359

Western political thought and the critique of ideologies; ideologies and the unity
of ethics and politics; the higher principles: classical and ideological; ideolo­
gies versus moral autonomy; Mazzini: nationalism and the subversion of ideol­
ogy; state centralization and the loss of moral autonomy; the sociology of
ideology: industrialism and secularism; the nation state and the higher princi­
ples; ideology and the problem of authority; authority as science; ideology, the
state of war, and the weakness of power.

Glossary 371

Bibliography 377

Index 385
 Preface

The second edition of this book includes, among other changes, a new chap­
ter on Cicero. In fact, that chapter is more than its title indicates because it
includes a substantial introduction to the major Hellenistic political philoso­
phies as well as a historical overview of the events surrounding the rise of the
Roman Empire. Because of this expanded coverage of the larger Greco­
Roman tradition of political discourse, I have changed the title of Part I from
"Ancient-Medieval" to the more inclusive "Classical and Medieval" Political
Theory.
I included the new chapter because of requests from instructors who
have used the text as well as my own increasing sense that the brief discus­
sion of Hellenistic political philosophy in the first edition, and the even
briefer references to Roman political thought, was inadequate given the basic
intent of the book. The intent was to present the introductory student with a
basic comprehension of Western political thought from the perspective of a
limited number of key thinkers viewed in historical context and understood
in terms of the changing relationship of ethics and politics in political philos­
ophy from Socrates to the contemporary period. The addition of Hellenistic
political thought and its great transmitter Cicero, the most important and in-

xi
xii Preface

fluential of the Roman political thinkers, enhances the book's objective. Not
only is a considerable historical period in the evolution of Western political
thought now covered in some detail, but important perspectives in the classi­
cal conception of ethics and politics are elaborated in the process.
It is from this broadest historical and thematic perspective that the
chapter on Cicero becomes a necessary addition to the book. Cicero is impor­
tant not because he is a great political thinker in the sense of a Plato or an
Aristotle. Clearly he is not. But as a transmitter of Hellenistic thought and as
a thinker who, more than any other, integrated it with Roman political ideas,
most notably with the Roman emphasis upon law as the foundation of politi­
cal community and as the source of the classical unity of ethics and politics,
he is crucial.
But there is another, in some ways more fundamental, reason for adding
a chapter on Cicero. This book was written with a pedagogical intent. As I
noted in the preface to the first edition, the thinkers and themes chosen are
those that seem most useful in encouraging the student to think critically
about the subject of political philosophy, and about his or her own theoretical
assumptions about the nature of politics. In this regard, Cicero is of particular
importance, for he illustrates something that in my experience few students
ever consider-that political ideas from one era are passed on and modified
to meet the exigencies of another, and in this way become part of the political
consciousness of later generations. To understand our own political assump­
tions is to have some understanding of the evolution and modifications of
these earlier ideas that have implicitly, unconsciously, become our own.
More than any other thinker, with the exception of Aristotle, Cicero modifies
and passes on classical ideas about the nature of law, the political commu­
nity, and republican ideals that form the unconscious substructure of those
political ideas and ideals most Western students value. For this reason alone,
Cicero is important.
There are, in addition, several other revisions and modifications of the
first edition. The introductory part of the St. Augustine chapter now includes
a discussion of some of the key political ideas of the Roman Empire as well
as a more detailed analysis of St. Augustine's theocratic theory of the state.
John of Salisbury, important as a late medieval pre-Aristotelian thinker, is
briefly discussed in the St. Thomas chapter. In the Locke chapter I have
added a section on patriarchy and the political exclusion of women in
Locke's theory of contract. The obvious inconsistencies and paradoxes inher­
ent in Locke's and later liberals' treatment of women, their actual defense of
patriarchy, are hardly dead issues and should not only arouse the interest of
students but provide the instructor with a useful vehicle for explaining the
theory of contract and for probing some of the issues raised by feminist crit­
ics of Locke and "patriarchal liberalism." Finally, the conclusion to the Marx
chapter has been updated to reflect the demise of Soviet and East European
communism and the current "death of communism" debate.
 Preface xiii

Given its pedagogical intent, the general format and style of the book
continue to be designed with the student in mind. It is assumed that the stu­
dent has no background in the history of political thought. Hence, all special­
ized terms are clearly defined in the text and used in a variety of contexts to
better enable the student to grasp their meaning. In addition, an expanded
glossary of terms is provided at the end of the book. And insofar as possible,
given the inevitable limitations imposed on any introductory textbook, each
thinker is dealt with in detail; basic concepts are explained in depth; and the
implications of various political theories are drawn out and analyzed. The ob­
ject has been to render the material understandable by writing at an appropri­
ate level, not by overly simplifying difficult concepts and issues.
As for the specific thinkers discussed, although they do represent most
of the genuinely important theorists in the Western tradition, at least those
that the introductory student should be expected to have some comprehen­
sion of, there are some exceptions. Montesquieu is only briefly mentioned in
passing. Hegel is discussed in conjunction with his influence upon modern
liberal and Marxist thought; he is not given separate treatment. And in the
contemporary period only those thinkers within the major ideological systems
of thought who are intellectually important are analyzed in any real depth.
Where appropriate, I have cited sources that are recognized as classics
in their respective fields. The most current literature is not always cited, but
some of the most enduring is. The object has again been pedagogical: to in­
troduce the beginning student to the mainstream of scholarship in political
philosophy, not to the most current debates in the field. The bibliography in­
cludes some of the most important, or most useful, of the works cited.
The last section of the book, contemporary political theory, covers the
age of ideology from Burke through Marx and the rise of modern national­
ism. Although the term contemporary is usually employed to describe a more
recent period of time, I have chosen to use it in this broadest context because
the major ideological systems of thought that emerge following the French
Revolution still constitute the major focus of political debate. Burke or Marx
or Green are not contemporary political thinkers, but their respective philoso­
phies have remained the touchstones of contemporary political thought. This
remains so even in this "post-modern" era when the boundaries of political
thought have been stretched at times to the point of obliteration.
Finally, I have made some changes in style and format that, I hope, will
make the book more attractive and useful to both instructor and student. I
have eliminated gender specific language wherever possible. I use the male
pronoun only when it is necessary to keep the sense of the thinker being dis­
cussed, to maintain historical facticity, or when for other reasons substantive
or stylistic it seems appropriate to do so. I have also reduced and simplified
the index, which I believe was too long and complex in the first edition to be
as useful to the student as it ought to be.
It is traditional and appropriate to end the preface with a note of thanks
xiv Preface

to all those who have helped bring the book to fruition. Those thanked in the
first edition for critically reading the original manuscript are thanked again:
Joyce and Stuart Lilie, Lynn Berk, and Joel Gottlieb. I should also like to thank
those who critically reviewed the new Cicero chapter and the entire manu­
script of the second edition; their criticisms and suggested revisions were
most helpful. The reviewers of the second edition were Richard Franklin,
University of Akron; Mark N. Hagopian, American International College;
and W. Wesley McDonald, Elizabethtown College. In addition, I must now
add to this list those who have used the text and have been kind enough to
offer their criticisms and suggestions. Where possible, I have tried to follow
their suggestions in this edition. Special thanks are due to Linda Pawelchak
for her fine editorial supervision; the book reads much better because of her
work. Finally, thanks to Linda Whitman for her much appreciated help in
typing and manuscript preparation. I alone, of course, am responsible for the
inevitable shortcomings of this work.

Brian R. Nelson
 Introduction

Western political thought, from its inception to the present time, is the sub­
ject of this book. Not all of the political thinkers who have contributed to the
historical evolution of that tradition of discourses are dealt with, but many of
the most important are. Those who are discussed have been chosen for two
reasons. First, they raise the perennial issues of politics and, as such, are most
useful to the student who is just beginning to study political theory seriously.
Second, they seem to best illustrate, or embody, the changing relationship of
ethics and politics in Western political thought, the basic theme of this work.
The precise meaning and implications of that theme will be developed
in the following chapters, not here; but the reader should know in broad out­
line what to anticipate. In its simplest terms, the book will argue that all polit­
ical theories establish, explicitly or implicitly, some thesis about the rela­
tionship of ethics and politics. At a deeper level, it will be argued that the
relationship of ethics and politics is a theme that defines key historical junc­
tures in Western political thought and, more importantly, that explains certain
crucial dilemmas within that tradition of discourse.
The organization of the book follows that theme: It analyzes, from the
perspective of specific thinkers, the shifting relationship of ethics and politics
from the beginning of Western political thought to the present time. Part I,
the Classical and Medieval period, is seen as a time in which political theo­
rists conceived politics as an activity rooted in ethical considerations, and po-

1
2 Introduction

litical theory, above all, as a moral science. Part II examines the breakdown
of this presumed unity in the thought of key modem political thinkers and the
corresponding development of those categories of political analysis that de­
fine the modem political perspective. Part III analyzes the major ideological
systems as one response to the dilemmas arising out of the modem divorce of
ethics and politics. The final chapter will attempt to explain the assumptions
behind that response and some of the political dangers inherent in it.
This brief synopsis, however, raises an issue, the first of many we will
face in the following chapters, but clearly an issue prior to all others. To or­
ganize a book such as this around a theme is by definition to adopt a particu­
lar perspective, a certain "point of view," that will differ from the perspective
of others within the field of political thought. This is inevitable, for there sim­
ply is no scholarly agreement that any perspective best characterizes the
Western tradition of political discourse. Indeed, there is not even universal
agreement that there is a tradition of discourse from which themes and per­
spectives can be derived.
The issue is resolved in recognizing that it is precisely in disagreement,
not consensus, that our understanding of political matters has evolved. What
ultimately is significant is not whether or not a perspective is valid in some
absolute sense, but whether or not that perspective enlarges our understand­
ing. This applies not only to questions of perspective and to scholarly inter­
pretations of political thinkers, but to those thinkers themselves. Political the­
orists are important not because what they say is necessarily "True" with a
capital "T," but because what they say enlarges our understanding of politics.
This is not always understood by the student beginning the study of political
thought. Frequently, the initiate will make the mistake of attempting to deter­
mine whether or not a theorist's philosophy is "True" or "False" and upon
that basis to accept or reject the thinker's arguments.
Apart from the fact that the "Truth" cannot be so easily ascertained (just
as there exists little scholarly agreement on matters of perspective and inter­
pretation, there will be even less on the question of "Truth") sophisticated stu­
dents of political thought will not raise the question of "Truth" at all. At least
they will not do so in the manner of the initiate, for they will understand that
some of the greatest political thinkers have arrived at conclusions and have
employed methods of analysis that are profoundly important whether "True"
or not. Indeed, it is often in pursuing a line of reasoning that may be erro­
neous, or that many consider to be so, that some of the most important insights
into the nature of politics have been discovered and elaborated.
The following chapters, it is hoped, will offer numerous examples of
thinkers with whom students will disagree, but from whom they wiil also
find new insights despite, indeed often because of, that disagreement. In the
same way, it is hoped that the student's understanding of political theory will
be enlarged and deepened whether there is agreement with the premises of
this work or not. Certainly the theme of this book, and the interpretations and
arguments that follow, are presented in this spirit.
Classical
and Medieval
Political Theory

Unless... political power

. and philosopy meet
together ... there can be no
rest from troubles... for
states, nor ... for all
mankind.. .

-Plato, The Republic

 Socrates

Western philosophy began in the sixth century B.C. in Greece. The sixth cen­
tury philosophers-the pre-Socratics-were physicists who directed their
speculation to detennining what the universe is made of. The first of them, a
man named Thales, claimed that the universe is made of water. He meant that
water is the most basic substance out of which other elements are constituted.
Those, who followed Thales argued that the universe is made of earth, or fire,
or air, or some combination of these basic "elements." In the fifth century a
thinker named Democritus finally solved the riddle; he claimed that all things
are composed of atoms.
But as time went on it became apparent to many thinkers that the most
important questions were not being addressed. Even if everything is com­
posed of water, how does the water change into something else, they asked.
How does anything change from one thing to another? And, even more im­
portant, what is the ultimate nature of the universe? Is everything in a state of
change, or is there a more basic reality that is pennanent and unchangeable?
Thinkers gave widely varied answers to these questions. Some, such as
Heraclitus, argued that the basic nature of reality is change itself. Others,
such as Pannenides, insisted that change is a deception of the senses, that re­
ality is ultimately unchangeable. Still others took positions between the ex­
tremes of Heraclitus and Parmenides. A thinker named Pythagoras, for exam­
ple, claimed that beneath the changeable universe that we see around us is a

5
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