Introduction to Political Theory

Lecture 5: Democracy (II)

Dr. Franz Mang
Department of Politics and Public Administration
The University of Hong Kong
 Lecture on Nov 3 cancelled!
• Notice from the Politics Department (PPA)
• The lecture “Justice, labour, and poverty (I)”
will be cancelled
– Cancelled to prepare for HKU Information Day on
Nov 4
• Lecture materials will be uploaded onto
Moodle – please study them before Nov 10

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 Term Essay – deadline
• Mid-term essay
– Due on: 18:00, Wednesday, 25 October 2017
(Hong Kong time)
– Write on one of the discussion topics of tutorial
sessions 1-4 (PTO)

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 Term Essay – topics
1. Discussion question: Is morality (or ethics) subjective or
relative? If it is, can we debate sensibly about moral issues in
politics?
2. Does Hobbes provide a convincing (not only realistic)
depiction of the state of nature? In addition, discuss briefly
what Steven Pinker thinks about human nature.
3. ‘I haven’t consented to the laws by which I am governed;
therefore I have no obligation to follow them’. Do you agree?
4. ‘Some people have greater political expertise than others
and should therefore have more political power’. Discuss.

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 Term essay –
How your essay will be graded

 Take a position and defend it

 Fully engage the readings (don’t hand in a book
report)
 Write clearly, argue carefully, organise well
 Proof-read your paper before submission

 4 Sample papers (with comments) uploaded, for your

reference
 Don’t guess what your teachers think – we welcome
disagreement
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 Term essay –
Suggestions
a) Imagine: writing to your roommate – he/she is as
smart as you are, but happens not to know what you
know (e.g. knows nothing about political philosophy).
b) Start writing/planning early – at least two weeks before
the deadline.
c) A good English dictionary and Google – very useful.
d) After finishing the first complete draft of your paper,
leave it for two days – don’t fall in love with your paper
too early – and then read it again. Revise it, proof-read it
before submission.

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 Term essay –
Format and requirements
1) Font size 12, Single-spaced, Times New Roman.
2) Length: 2,500-3,000 words for each essay. Do not
exceed this length unless you’re confident that your
reader(s) want to finish the whole paper.
3) Citation format: See how Louis Pojman and James
Fieser and other scholars cite references. Can also
see the sample paper that received A-.
• All popular citation styles are acceptable (e.g. APA, MLA,
and Chicago). However, be consistent in your citation
style.

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 Term essay –
Format and requirements
Submission:
1) Upload a soft-copy of your essay onto Moodle.
2) Save your soft-copy in this format:
“UniversityNo._TopicNo._LASTNAME_Name”.
3) Save your file in either .doc or .docx format; don’t save it as a
PDF file. PLEASE!
Plagiarism and lateness:
• Late essays – penalised by one sub-grade per day. (e.g. “B”
would become “B-”)
• No plagiarism. Acts of plagiarism could result in heavy
penalties, including disciplinary action.
http://www.rss.hku.hk/plagiarism/

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Franz
 Essay writing –
working out in the gym
You went to the gym and felt everything
was easy?
- You can’t gain muscles!
- Essay writing – the same.

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 Term essay
Discuss with me:
• My email: [email protected]
• Friday, 13 or 20 Oct
• With a detailed outline or a full draft

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 Last time
• The concept of democracy
• Plato’s philosopher kings
• Why not meritocracy?
• Some reasons for democracy
• Is democracy the best form of
government? Some reflections

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 Today’s lecture
• The value of democracy – different
angles
• Rousseau’s idea of the general will
(you’ll be less confident about the importance
of democracy?)
• Mill on the value of democracy

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 Democracy
• The importance of democracy? (In red – focus
today)
1. Legitimacy
• Rousseau’s idea of the general will
• Equal respect (e.g. David Estlund and Tom Christiano)

2. Educative effects of democracy (citizens become

better people)
• J.S. Mill

3. Protection of people’s interests (e.g. economic

growth, avoid wars, social stability)
• Amartya Sen, Michael Doyle (last lecture), J.S. Mill
But none of these is uncontroversial. And they can be combined in
different ways.
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 Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(1712-1778)
• Born in city-state of Geneva
• Representative works:
o Discourse on the Arts and Sciences
(First Discourse) (1750)
o Discourse on the Origins of Inequality
(Second Discourse) (1754)
o Emile, or On Education (1762)
o The Social Contract (1762)
• “Rousseau was active as a composer and a
music theorist, as the pioneer of modern
autobiography, as a novelist, and as a
botanist.” (Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy) 14
Recommended
Rousseau’s idea of the
general will
• Wolff’s book, pp.77-93

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• Popular sovereignty:
legitimate authority is created and
sustained by the consent of governed (e.g.
through democracy)
• Legitimacy (morally legitimate political
authority) through democracy –
Rousseau

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 Social contract and the general will

(a) The basic problem:

• “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in
chains…. What can make it legitimate? That
question I think I can answer.”
(Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract and Discourses
[1762], Book I, ch. 1)
– Chains: laws, coercion, etc.
– All governments restrict individual freedom

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 Government = triad society? No legitimacy?

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2:00 – 4:11 – With my own translation
 Social contract and the general will

(a) The basic problem:

• “How to find a form of association which will
defend the person and goods of each member
with the collective force of all, and under
which each individual, while uniting himself
with the others, obeys no one but himself,
and remains as free as before.” (Book I, ch. 6)

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 Social contract and the general will

(b) The solution—brief description:

• “Each one of us puts into the community his
person and all his powers under the supreme
direction of the general will; and as a body,
we incorporate every member as an
indivisible part of the whole.” (Book I, ch. 6)
– Self-legislation, or simply, e.g. you set up your own
schedule

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 Social contract and the general will

(c) The general will:

• “There is often a great deal of difference
between the will of all and the general will;
the latter considers only the common
interest, while the former takes private
interest into account, and is no more than a
sum of particular wills….” (Book II, ch. 3)
– E.g. aggregation of votes for personal interests (the will of all)
– Maximising one’s own gains vs. fair to all people

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 Social contract and the general will

(c) The general will:

• “I hold then that Sovereign, being nothing less
than the exercise of the general will, can never
be alienated; and that the Sovereign, who is no
less than a collective being, cannot be
represented except by himself: the power indeed
may be transmitted [i.e. delegated], but not the
will” (Book II, ch. 1)
– Work within democracy (e.g. separation of powers in a democracy), not
without it (not, e.g., monarchy on behalf of people)
– Legislation, not administration (elected aristocracy administers)

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 Social contract and the general will

(c) The general will:

• “the general will alone can direct the State
according to the object for which it was
instituted, i.e. the common good” (Book II,
ch. 1)
– The state aims at the common good (or
common interest)
– Only the general will can direct the state to
achieve the common good

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 Social contract and the general will
(c) The general will – worries about factions (e.g. political parties)
a. ‘If when an adequately informed people deliberates, the
Citizens had no communication among themselves, the
general will would always result from the large number of
small differences, and the deliberation would always be
good’ (Book II, ch. 3)
b. “Instead of saying by his vote ‘It is to the advantage of the
State,’ he says, ‘It is to the advantage of this or that man
or party that this or that view should prevail.’ Thus the
law of public order in assemblies is not so much to
maintain in them the general will…. (Book IV, ch.1)”

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 Social contract and the general will

(c) The general will:

• But what is the common good, i.e. common
interests (for every citizen)? Is it real?

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 Social contract and the general will

(c) The general will:

• Common good –
a) Illusory and meaningless (there’re only
personal interests?); the general will would
make no sense
b) Illusory – but useful political rhetoric
c) Real, but people disagree about what it is

Your position?
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 Social contract and the general will

(d) Against representative democracy:

• “Sovereignty, for the same reason as makes it inalienable,
cannot be represented. . . . The deputies of the people,
therefore, are not and cannot be its representatives.”
• “Every law the people has not ratified in person is null
and void—is, in fact, not a law. The people of England
regards itself as free; but it is grossly mistaken; it is free
only during the election of members of parliament.”
(Book III, ch. 15)
– Better: Legislation – popular assemblies (like Athens). Book IV, ch. 2). Realistic?
– But Rousseau’s criticisms of representative democracy may be sound
nevertheless.
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 Social contract and the general will

(d) Against representative democracy:

• Better: legislation – popular assemblies
(See Book IV, ch. 2)
• Like Athens (PTO). Realistic?
• Even unrealistic, Rousseau’s criticisms of
representative democracy may be sound.

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Athenian democratic assembly
500 – 400 BC
 Social contract and the general will
“[T]here can be no assurance that a particular
will is in conformity with the general will, until it
has been put to the free vote of the people [the
majority rule].” (Book II, ch. 7)
• But what if you disagree with the majority?
Should you follow the majority? Why?

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 Social contract and the general will
• What if you disagree with the majority?
Should you follow the majority? Why?
– If a referendum voted for “Germany will accept
more and more refugees in the next 5 years”? All
Germans will accept?

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 Social contract and the general will
• What if you disagree with the majority?
Should you follow the majority? Why?
– If a referendum voted down Hong Kong
independence and the status quo will remain
until 2100? All people will accept?

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 Social contract and the general will

• The general will enables every individual

citizen to obey no one but himself, and
remain as free as before?
• Possible?

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Schumpeter’s criticisms of the
general will
• Joseph Schumpeter (1883 – 1950)
• Austrian American economist and
political scientist, Harvard University
1932-50
• Most famous work:
– Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy
(1942)
• Aspiration for a realistic, value-free
model of democracy
• Democracy as a competition for votes
(not the expression of the general will)

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 Schumpeter’s criticisms of the general will

• On the idea of common good

– No such thing as a uniquely determined common
good.
– People differ in their basic values
– Inevitably hold different opinions about which
particular policies best realise these values.

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 Schumpeter’s criticisms of the general will

• Reduced sense of responsibility and of effective volition, even for

educated people
– Compare a lawyer’s attitude to
a. his brief (instructions that explain his duties)
b. the statements of political facts presented in a
newspaper
– To a: “done under the definite stimulus of interest in his
professional competence. . . .”
– To b: “does not care to absorb the information or to apply
to it”; impatient of long or complicated argument.”
(261-2)

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Schumpeter’s criticism of the general will

Personal concerns: Impersonal –

irrational

family, job, friends, church

.
National and international
concerns: .
economic policy, foreign
policy Personal -
rational

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 Schumpeter’s criticisms of the general will

• The idea of general will revisited

– The “general will” is “not a genuine but a
manufactured will.” (263; emphasis added)
– Typical citizens tend to yield to extra-
rational or irrational prejudice and impulse
as well as to the manipulation by
politicians and groups.
– Can the idea of the general will be
defended?
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 Schumpeter vs. Rousseau
Rousseau Schumpeter

Common good? Real, the state aims at it Unreal – different interests

and different ways to
realise them

General will? Real – crucial for legitimacy Unreal – merely

“manufactured will”

Mode of participation Direct democratic Elite rule. Vote for elites.

participation (for legislation) Elites compete for votes.

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J.S. Mill (1806-1873)
The most influential English
philosopher of the 19th century. A
naturalist, a utilitarian, and a
liberal.
His most important works include
System of Logic (1843), On Liberty
(1859), Utilitarianism (1861), and
Considerations on Representative
Government (1861).

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 J.S. Mill (1806-1873)
 J.S. Mill was a child prodigy:
Age 3: started to learn Greek and arithmetic
Age 8: had read through the whole Herodotus, six
dialogues of Plato and considerable history
Age 12: had studied Euclid and algebra, the Greek and
Latin poets, and some English poetry
Age 15: started work on the major treatises of
philosophy, psychology and government
Age 20: suffered from a nervous breakdown

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 J.S. Mill (1806-1873)

Taken at the Main Library, HKU (Sept 21, 2016)

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Chronology of Mill’s major writing

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 J.S. Mill (1806-1873)
• We focus on Mill’s Considerations on
Representative Government
• The edition cited:
 John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XIX -
Essays on Politics and Society Part II, ed. John M. Robson, Introduction
by Alexander Brady (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977).
(Available at Online Library of Liberty)

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 Two Arguments for
Democratic Participation
1. The educative argument [our focus]
 Democratic participation improves people’s moral
character.
 Note: Mill stressed the importance of active political
participation
2. The protective argument:
 Democratic participation enables people to protect their
basic interests.

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 Mill: Active Political Participation
Mill – voting for representatives alone isn’t good
enough; we need active participation.
 Voting is “a political act once in a few years, and
for which nothing in the detail habits of the
citizens has prepared him, leaves his intellect and
his moral dispositions very much as it found him.”
(Mill, Dissertations and Discussions (1859))
 Compare Rousseau’s comment on British people “free only during the election”

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 Mill: Active Political Participation
 The ideal government is one in which “the whole
people participate; that any participation, even in
the smallest public function, is useful; that the
participation should everywhere be as great as the
general degree of improvement of the community
will allow….” (Considerations on Representative
Government, 412)

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 The Educative Argument
• Mill compares the effects of two forms of
government:
I. Government that enables active and
widespread democratic participation
II. Government by the few (monarchy, aristocracy,
etc.): people are given no public duty to perform
and are not allowed to take part in political
decision making.

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 The Educative Argument
• The two forms of government
(government by the few and government that
enables active democratic participation)
lead to two different types of national character
(406-7):
 Active character (or energetic character)
 Passive character (or submissive character)

?
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 The Educative Argument:
Government by the few
(1) People would not be interested in public affairs
 “Let a person have nothing to do for his
country, and he will not care for it.” (401)
 They do not show any “largeness” of
conceptions and sentiments (411)

Pop singer Ivana Wong: “I hate politics!”

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 The Educative Argument:
Government by the few
(2) People would tend to be egoistic
“The man never thinks of any collective
interest, of any objects to be pursued
jointly with others, but only in
competition with them, and in some
measure at their expense.” (412)

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 The Educative Argument:
Government by the few
(3) Passive character and authoritarianism:
a) “Inactivity, unaspiringness, absence of desire….
any very formidable misdirection by an
energetic few becomes possible.” (410)
b) “[T]he passive type of character is favoured by
the government of one or a few” (410)

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 The Educative Argument:
Active Democratic Participation
(1) Competence and knowledge improved
 “[For most people!] Their work is a routine. . . .
Giving him something to do for the public, supplies,
in a measure, all these deficiencies. If circumstances
allow the amount of public duty assigned him to be
considerable, it makes him an educated man.” (411)

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 The Educative Argument:
Active Democratic Participation
(2) Commitment to the public interest
 A person “is made to feel himself one of the public,
and whatever is for their benefit to be for his
benefit.” (412)
 “He is called upon, while so engaged, to weigh
interests not his own. . . to apply, at every turn,
principles and maxims which have for their reason
of existence the common good.” (412)
Why is such commitment good?

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 Brief summary
Rousseau’s idea of the general will
Features and difficulties (Schumpeter’s criticisms)
Mill on the educative effects of democracy

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 Brief summary
Rousseau Mill

Active participation? Yes – not just voting Yes – not just voting

Mode of democracy Direct participation (legislation); Representative democracy

Elected aristocracy – active and widespread
(administration) participation

Importance of Freedom – self-legislation Educative effects;

democracy protecting interests.

Common good? Yes Yes

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Take a break

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