Philosophy of Democratic Government

Yves R. Simon

Description

This complete treatise of political philosophy demonstrates Yves R. Simon's belief that, even in the best conceivable circumstances, government is needed to determine direction toward the common good and to provide the means for united action.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique
• Political Ideologies
• Political
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• General officer
• Politics
• General
• Democracy

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 30 août 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268182137
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 16 Mo

Extrait

CHARLES R. WALGREEN FOUNDATION LECTURES
First Published by the University of Chicago Press, 1951
Phoenix Edition, 1961
Midway Edition, 1977
First University of Notre Dame Press Edition, 1993
Published in the United States of America
Hardback edition published in 2017
Copyright 1951 Estate Yves R. Simon©
Anthony O. Simon
This ebook has been made possible in part by a major grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human
endeavor. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations
expressed in this book do not necessarily represent those of the National
Endowment for the Humanities.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Simon, Yves René Marie, 1903–1961.
Philosophy of democratic government / Yves R. Simon.
p. cm.
Originally published: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1951.
Includes bibliographial references and index.
ISBN 0-268-03803-1 (paper)
ISBN 978-0-268-18211-3 (hardback)
1. Political science. 2. Democracy. I. Title.
JA66.S5 1993
321.8—dc20 93-22812
CIP
∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper.TO
Jmes and Suznne Corett
IN GRATEFUL AFFECTION FOREWORD
◊
WICE during the frst half of the twentieth century, totali­
tarian systems have challenged the concept of democracy. T
These systems have put frward complete philosophies of man
and the state, philosophies strong enough to inspire their fl­
lowers with a crusading spirit.
Democracy has been on the defensive; it has been defended
more and more often with the pragmatic argument. But this
argument has proved no match fr the competing systems.
Democracy works, it is true-but so did fascism, until it was
destroyed fom outside. The need for a philosophy that shows
democracy to be grounded frmly on rational principles-this
need is apparent.
These considerations have prompted the Walgreen Founda­
tion to issue a series of volumes setting frth the basic prin­
ciples on which democracy rests. These books, it is hoped,
will help people everywhere to understand the fundations of
democracy and to realize that this system stands on those prin­
ciples that are necessary to maintain human dignity.
The present volume is the second in the series.
JEROME G. KERWIN
Chairman, Chades R. Wlgreen Foundtion
fr the Sdy of American Istitutions
Vll Q
99
77
TABLE OF CONTENTS
�
I. GENERAL THEORY OF GOVERNMENT 1
The Paternal Function of Authority 7
Authority as Cause of United Action 19
The Volition of the Common Good 36
II. DEMOCRATIC FREEDOM 72
Universal Sufrage
The Rule of the Majority
The Party System 103
The Instruments of Government 108
The Democratic Transfrmation of the State 127
III. AUTHORITY IN DEMOCRACY 144
The Coach-Driver Theory 146
Divine Right 155
The Transmission Theory 158
Authorit in Democracy 176
IV. DEMOCRATIC E ALITY 195
Equality as Unity of Nature 197
Natural Inequality and Structural Inequality 207
Equality of Opportunity 222 versus Exploitation 230
V. DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY 260
On Technological Society 267
The Pursuit of Happiness and the Lust fr Power 288
The Training of Free Men 296
Community Lif versus Individualistic Loneliness 307
INDEX 323
lX CHAPTER I
GENERAL THEORY OF GOVERNMENT
OMMUNISM and national socialism have come to resem­
ble each other in so many respects that their historical di­C
versity and their lasting opposition arouse wonder. In spite of
common fatures that are profound and increasingly obvious,
they prove altogether repugnant to efecting any kind of mer­
ger. The task of fghting them would be greatly eased if fol­
lowers, actual and potential, were led to believe that one sys­
tem, i.e., the one which appeals to them, is substantially
identical with the other, i.e., the one which they hate; but
such identifcation never was very successfl as a polemical in­
strument. Conservatives in the 1930's were given a fair chance
1 to understand that naziism was but brown bolshevism; yet
many of them helped the Nazis. Today it seems that it should
be easy fr all concerned to recognize in communism the very
features that they hated most in naziism; but not all do.
The persistent confict of these two systems is traceable in
part to their opposite stands on the class struggle and to the
operation of class allegiances. But in the minds of many fl­
lowers the decisive infuence is exercised by representations of
the ultimate fture. For wirh regard to the future and more
particularly to the remote portions of the fture, where the
assertion of an ideal cannot be hampered by any experience or
fact, the two totalitarian systems difer widely. In fascism or
naziism the state is exalted as the highest product
2 of lif and history. In spite of the evolutionistic language in
1. See Waldemar Gurian, The Future of Bolshevism, trans. E. I. Watkin (New York:
Sheed & Ward, 1936).
2. Mussolini, Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions (Rome: "Ardita" Publishers, 1935),
1 2 PHILOSOPHY OF DEMOCRATIC GVERNMENT
which such things are spoken of, it plainly enjoys the char­
acter of a terminal accomplishment. Is it going to endure fr­
ever? At any rate, not a word is said about how it might come
to an end and what might come after it. Communism, on the
3 other hand, promises the withering-away of the state.
At an early stage of its history, socialism was characterized
as pessimistic with regard to accomplished facts and optimis­
4 tic with regard to facts to be accomplished. Communism, in
our time, remains optimistic about fcts to be accomplished
ultimately. Its gruesome view of the non-Communist society
and the ruthlessness of its revolutionary means are associated
with a picture as radiant as anything ever produced by the
spirit of utopia. The rational organization of economic rela­
tions will bring to an end the division of society into classes,
the exploitation of man by man, the war of man against man.
But the state is bor of this division, this exploitation, this
p. 10: "Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception of lif stresses the importance of
the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those
of the State, which stands fr the conscience and the universal will of man as a historic
entity. It is opposed to classical liberalism which arose as a reaction to absolutism
and exhausted its historical fnction when the State became the expression of the con­
science and will of the people. Liberalism denied the State in the name of the individual,
Fascism reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual.
And if liberty is to be the attribute of living men and not of abstract dummies invented
by individualistic liberalism, then Fascism stands fr liberty, and fr the only liberty
worth having, the liberty of the State and of the individual within the State. The Fas­
cist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values
can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist
State-a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values-interprets, develops, and potenti­
ates the whole life of a people."
3. Gurian, op. cit., p. 61: "The Bolshevik leaders Lenin and Stalin profss their
ideal, the ultimate suprsession of all state authority, rendered superfuous by a per­
fct society. It is on the contrary the aim of Hitler's party to establish it on a frmer
basis and stabilise it by a genuine union with the will of the people embodied, so it is
claimed, in the Fuehrer [this statement of the National Socialist ideal had been taken
fom the Nazi jurist, Huber-Kiel]."
4. P.-J. Proudhon, System, du contradictions ionomiquu, ed. C. Bougie and H. Moys•
set (Paris: Riviere, 1923), I, 69. GENERAL THEORY OF GOVERNMENT 3
war. The classless society will be a stateless society. The
totalitarian increase of the powers of the state is a temporary
measure necessary to bring about a social structure that will
render the state unnecessary and establish forever the brother­
hood of men.
In Marxian communism the philosophy of evil is character­
ized by a sort of monism which proves very handy when there
is a question of stirring men to action; fr, if all particular in­
justices ultimately merge into one absolute injustice, it should
be possible to do away with injustice, once and fr all, in a
5 Napoleonic victory. Social visions, in the tradition of liberal
5. A Napoleonic victory is one which but a short time after the opning of hostili­
ties puts an end to the fghting power of the enemy. It presupposes a heavy concentr:­
tion of enemy forces. A Napoleonic victory was possible on December 2, 1805, as the
allied emperors had decided to gamble their armies, but not in the Russian campaign.
The myth of a revolutionary victory which would constitute an all-embracing re­
demption of mankind and a basic solution to the problem of evil took hold of the mind
of Marx at an early stage of his development; it impressed upon his revolutionary plans
features in striking contrast with the principles then commonly received among So­
cialists. A good description of this contrast is given by Daniel Halevy (L1 Vie d Prou­
don [Paris: Stock, 1948], pp. 362 f.). In the fall of 1844, Marx arrived in Paris; he was
in charge of funding a periodical designed to promote the collaboration of French and
German radicals, the Deutsch-fr1nzJisische ]1hrbcher. "He ran into the opposition of the
French leaders and became acutely aware of the necessity of supplementing his doctrine
in order to meet their objections .... They all were anxious to forestall the growth,
in France, of a class similar to the proletariat that existed in England. For the young
Marx, such concern was childish and silly. He realized keenly the inevitability of the
industrial revolution and of its consequences, one of which is the rise of the proletariat;
further he considered that the duty of the revolutionist is not to 'emancipate' the pro­
letarians (a rather il