1. What is the justification of government authority? Why should a person subordinate my will to another person, institution, or especially government?
2. What is justice? How do we determine if a government is just or not? The aspect of justice we focused on in class was the just distribution of goods (wealth, power, etc.) and burdens (taxation, military service, etc.).
3. Individual vs. State: Where do we draw the line between individual freedom and government control? Which is more important, individual freedom or the needs of society? When they conflict, which should trump the other?
4. Are there circumstances in which it would be immoral to obey the government or in which it would be permissible to break the law? Are we always obligated to obey the law even when it is unjust or immoral?
I'll be focusing more on the third question. Here is the continuum of individual liberty and state collectivism:
INDIVIDUALISM-----------------------------COLLECTIVISM
-----------------------------Democrats &
----------------------------- Republicans-----------------Stalin--------1984
<------------------l------l----l-------------------------------l----l------------------l->
Anarchism---l--Classical Liberalism------Marxism---Totalitarianism
----------Libertarianism
(Don't you love all the "ism"s)
Note that Classical Liberalism and Liberalism are not the same thin. "Liberalism" is applied in different ways in eith case. Here is the difference between Conservatism and Liberalism:
Conservatism: Let society grow naturally. Hands off.
Liberalism: Legislate social progress. Hence the term Progressivism
Note that Democrats and Republicans are in about the same position along the continuum, and that neither are purely Classical Liberal. Both in general legislate aspects of life that Classical Liberalism wouldn't allow for, but they don't agree on which aspects to legislate.
Classical Liberalism: Freedom, liberty, individual freedom from inappropriate government control. Freedom to pursue legitimate individual interests. Human autonomy is considered one of the most basic rights and should only be controlled when it has the potential to cause direct harm to others. The state should not force an individual to act in a certain way, even for his own good, unless doing so would prevent harm to others besides himself. The governmet's domain is only within the public sphere. Each person is considered the proper guardian of his own physical, mental, and spiritual health.
Marxism: Capital (the means of production) is owned by the state.
Marx said that in capitalism, the worker is exploited. In his time, they were to a certain extent. They were paid ridiculously low wages, worked long hours, had no safety standards for protection, and child labor was prevalent. Marx thought that capitalism would inevitably undermine itself and lead to communism. Here's the process as he laid it out: Competition for profit -> Lower wages, machines introduced -> international companies -> failed company owners join the unemployed -> growing, unified embittered worker class -> ka-BOOM! They rise up -> capitalism is discarded ->
Transition:
1. Dictatorship of proletariats (workers) - They clear out the last remnants of capitalism.
2. 1st stage of Communism: Socialism - state ownership of production.
3. Ultimate Communism: People as a whole make economic decisions. (And they all hold hands and sing Kumbaya.)
My paper (after a very long introduction) is a response to Marxism. (Don't let the title scare you) Here goes:
Marxist Theory in Practice
Marx's theory beyond a certain point can only be just that, a theory. It describes how capitalism will evolve into communism, but it does not account for its implications after the proletariat becomes the ruler and common ownership of the means of production have been achieved. It does not account for how economic decisions would be made. If there is no class distinction and if all the people at once own the means of production, how is any kind of decision going to be made? The theory also does not account for what the workers may become when in power. Would they remain workers? Or would they transform into another upper class?
Imagine a society where all the people had equal power in making the economic decisions. For this to be possible, votes or polls would have to be taken for every decision. Someone would have ot administer the polls or votes, and somehow a decision would have to be made about which decisions should be voted on. It would not be possible for the workders to vote on every single decision, or no work would be done. So who would make the other choices if all the people were workers? Then once the polls or votes had been taken, who would gather, count, record, and implement the results? The people assigned to do this would not inherently have any particular power over the others. However, it is conceivable that they would use their position for their advantage. They may tweak the decision in the implementation of it. A Marxist mights say in response that ehy would have no reason to take advantage of their position, being content with no one having an advantage. However, this cannot be left up to chance. Throughout history, we have seen that people do not always behave within a system as expected, and they must be checked. Even if the people in this position did not mean to take advantage of it, they may inadvertently make changes to the voted decision when implementing it. To ensure that this did not happen, an impartial panel would probably have to be set up to make sure changes were made exactly as decreed by the vote. Already we see that not all the people can have absolutely equal power. Some sort of administration would have to evolve to carry out the decision making process. Now, suppose that the majority of the workers, not understanding economic principles, made some unwise economic decisions and put the economy into a precarious position. This situation could perhaps be avoided due to the free public education. Then who would determine the curriculum? Fro all the people to have equal power, educational decisions would have to be determined the same way as economic decisions. If this is the case, we come full circle and find ourselves stuck with the same dilemmas.
Suppose the above scenario was applied to a small society. Now imagine a society with millions of people all with absolutely equal power trying to make and carry out decisions. Even the first stage of the decision making process would be impossible. Imagine trying to herd millions of people to the polls for every economic or education decision. That alone would require someone to have some administrative powers. At best, the millions of people would have to select representatives to make most of the decisions for them, and they could all still vote less often on the more important decisions. This scenario would be not so different from a representative democracy. Now, not only decisions about justice would be made by the delegates, but also decisions about the economy, education, health care, etc.
Now, the Marxist may respond to all of this by saying that Marx did no necessarily intend for there to be no administration at all. He merely said, as quoted by Lawhead, that the "public power will lose its political character" (Lawhead 609). He defined political power as "organised power of one class for oppressing another" (Lawhead 609). The delegates in an administration in a communist society would not necessarily take advantage of their constituents, especially since they were likewise part of the proletariat class.
I contend, however, that those in power would eventually cease to see themselves as workers on the same plane as their constituents. They would be making decisions that affected many aspects of their lives, yet they may not fully understand the workings of all these areas, such as economics, education, health care, etc. They could also take advantage of their position and make decisions that favored themselves or they could exempt themselves from decisions that affected everyone else.
By publicising all these facets of our lives, Marx claims that we would all really be more free. However, this is very unlikely to be the case when his theories are applied because he did not consider some of the implications. Some kind of administration is necessary, so the people could not all have absolutely equal power. Economic decisions would be in the hands of even fewer than before. Those with power would probably cease to be on the same level as the rest of the population, but they would be making decisions that affected and were not necessarily good for them, and they would not be free.
P.S. I didn't write the following in my paper, but I think it's interesting to note who is trying to take over capital in our country (health insurance, GM). Are these guys workers? Or elite? They claim to be facilitating social progress, but they're just making themselves -- the elite -- more powerful.
-----------------------------Democrats &
----------------------------- Republicans-----------------Stalin--------1984
<------------------l------l----l-------------------------------l----l------------------l->
Anarchism---l--Classical Liberalism------Marxism---Totalitarianism
----------Libertarianism
(Don't you love all the "ism"s)
Note that Classical Liberalism and Liberalism are not the same thin. "Liberalism" is applied in different ways in eith case. Here is the difference between Conservatism and Liberalism:
Conservatism: Let society grow naturally. Hands off.
Liberalism: Legislate social progress. Hence the term Progressivism
Note that Democrats and Republicans are in about the same position along the continuum, and that neither are purely Classical Liberal. Both in general legislate aspects of life that Classical Liberalism wouldn't allow for, but they don't agree on which aspects to legislate.
Classical Liberalism: Freedom, liberty, individual freedom from inappropriate government control. Freedom to pursue legitimate individual interests. Human autonomy is considered one of the most basic rights and should only be controlled when it has the potential to cause direct harm to others. The state should not force an individual to act in a certain way, even for his own good, unless doing so would prevent harm to others besides himself. The governmet's domain is only within the public sphere. Each person is considered the proper guardian of his own physical, mental, and spiritual health.
Marxism: Capital (the means of production) is owned by the state.
Marx said that in capitalism, the worker is exploited. In his time, they were to a certain extent. They were paid ridiculously low wages, worked long hours, had no safety standards for protection, and child labor was prevalent. Marx thought that capitalism would inevitably undermine itself and lead to communism. Here's the process as he laid it out: Competition for profit -> Lower wages, machines introduced -> international companies -> failed company owners join the unemployed -> growing, unified embittered worker class -> ka-BOOM! They rise up -> capitalism is discarded ->
Transition:
1. Dictatorship of proletariats (workers) - They clear out the last remnants of capitalism.
2. 1st stage of Communism: Socialism - state ownership of production.
3. Ultimate Communism: People as a whole make economic decisions. (And they all hold hands and sing Kumbaya.)
My paper (after a very long introduction) is a response to Marxism. (Don't let the title scare you) Here goes:
Marxist Theory in Practice
Marx's theory beyond a certain point can only be just that, a theory. It describes how capitalism will evolve into communism, but it does not account for its implications after the proletariat becomes the ruler and common ownership of the means of production have been achieved. It does not account for how economic decisions would be made. If there is no class distinction and if all the people at once own the means of production, how is any kind of decision going to be made? The theory also does not account for what the workers may become when in power. Would they remain workers? Or would they transform into another upper class?
Imagine a society where all the people had equal power in making the economic decisions. For this to be possible, votes or polls would have to be taken for every decision. Someone would have ot administer the polls or votes, and somehow a decision would have to be made about which decisions should be voted on. It would not be possible for the workders to vote on every single decision, or no work would be done. So who would make the other choices if all the people were workers? Then once the polls or votes had been taken, who would gather, count, record, and implement the results? The people assigned to do this would not inherently have any particular power over the others. However, it is conceivable that they would use their position for their advantage. They may tweak the decision in the implementation of it. A Marxist mights say in response that ehy would have no reason to take advantage of their position, being content with no one having an advantage. However, this cannot be left up to chance. Throughout history, we have seen that people do not always behave within a system as expected, and they must be checked. Even if the people in this position did not mean to take advantage of it, they may inadvertently make changes to the voted decision when implementing it. To ensure that this did not happen, an impartial panel would probably have to be set up to make sure changes were made exactly as decreed by the vote. Already we see that not all the people can have absolutely equal power. Some sort of administration would have to evolve to carry out the decision making process. Now, suppose that the majority of the workers, not understanding economic principles, made some unwise economic decisions and put the economy into a precarious position. This situation could perhaps be avoided due to the free public education. Then who would determine the curriculum? Fro all the people to have equal power, educational decisions would have to be determined the same way as economic decisions. If this is the case, we come full circle and find ourselves stuck with the same dilemmas.
Suppose the above scenario was applied to a small society. Now imagine a society with millions of people all with absolutely equal power trying to make and carry out decisions. Even the first stage of the decision making process would be impossible. Imagine trying to herd millions of people to the polls for every economic or education decision. That alone would require someone to have some administrative powers. At best, the millions of people would have to select representatives to make most of the decisions for them, and they could all still vote less often on the more important decisions. This scenario would be not so different from a representative democracy. Now, not only decisions about justice would be made by the delegates, but also decisions about the economy, education, health care, etc.
Now, the Marxist may respond to all of this by saying that Marx did no necessarily intend for there to be no administration at all. He merely said, as quoted by Lawhead, that the "public power will lose its political character" (Lawhead 609). He defined political power as "organised power of one class for oppressing another" (Lawhead 609). The delegates in an administration in a communist society would not necessarily take advantage of their constituents, especially since they were likewise part of the proletariat class.
I contend, however, that those in power would eventually cease to see themselves as workers on the same plane as their constituents. They would be making decisions that affected many aspects of their lives, yet they may not fully understand the workings of all these areas, such as economics, education, health care, etc. They could also take advantage of their position and make decisions that favored themselves or they could exempt themselves from decisions that affected everyone else.
By publicising all these facets of our lives, Marx claims that we would all really be more free. However, this is very unlikely to be the case when his theories are applied because he did not consider some of the implications. Some kind of administration is necessary, so the people could not all have absolutely equal power. Economic decisions would be in the hands of even fewer than before. Those with power would probably cease to be on the same level as the rest of the population, but they would be making decisions that affected and were not necessarily good for them, and they would not be free.
P.S. I didn't write the following in my paper, but I think it's interesting to note who is trying to take over capital in our country (health insurance, GM). Are these guys workers? Or elite? They claim to be facilitating social progress, but they're just making themselves -- the elite -- more powerful.
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