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Liberalism and Globalization: an Essay on Montesquieu, Tocqueville Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2014 Liberalism and Globalization: An Essay On Montesquieu, Tocqueville, and Manent Trevor Shelley Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Shelley, Trevor, "Liberalism and Globalization: An Essay On Montesquieu, Tocqueville, and Manent" (2014). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 2841. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/2841 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. LIBERALISM AND GLOBALIZATION: AN ESSAY ON MONTESQUIEU, TOCQUEVILLE, AND MANENT A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Political Science by Trevor Shelley B.A., Concordia University, Montreal, 2005 M.A., University of Calgary, 2007 May 2015 For my parents Tocqueville points out that in democratic times, in contrast to aristocratic ages, familial relations become “more intimate and sweeter” while “the natural bond tightens.” As a most fortunate beneficiary in this regard, I am full of gratitude for their continued love and support—for their natural generosity that has made so much possible. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Montesquieu rather provocatively opens his great work, The Spirit of the Laws, with the following epigraph from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (2.553): Prolem sine matre creatum [“a work with no mother”]. It would be an egregious exaggeration to begin comparing my own essay here with his masterpiece, but among the infinite things distinguishing (and elevating) his text from this dissertation is my reliance upon the many, many mothers and—so as not to be politically incorrect—fathers that contributed to this humble creation. Among them are, first and foremost, the incomparable pedagogical parents I have had the fine fortune of studying political philosophy with at Louisiana State University: Drs. James Stoner, Ellis Sandoz, and Cecil Eubanks. The differences and similarities among them, and their respective readings and teachings of great texts, have instilled fruitful tensions within my own soul. The influence of all three has found its way into this work—indubitably for better—and whatever flaws are to be found herein are most certainly my own. Indeed, their positive intellectual influence shall remain with me for my life’s duration. So far as flaws go, fortunate furthermore have I been to have had Dr. Stoner’s keen editorial eye, which kept me in check regarding both form and substance, and I am most grateful for all his support and patience over these past years—it has not been a short journey. Additionally, I would like to thank some of my fellow colleagues, especially for the many wonderful discussions about politics and philosophy, particularly Jacob Seigler (often well after midnight on the front steps of Stubbs, rehashing passages as repeatedly as we ashed Parliaments), Drew Thompson (periodically in his welcoming apartment where his rich narratives alongside Kentucky bourbon made one feel all the more iii welcome), Kim Hurd (not a few times for “tea” at Chimes trading notes on “social history,” among other things), Rudy Hernandez (anywhere and everywhere with his commanding voice and presence, adding thoughtfulness to thoughts), Sarah Beth Vosburg (running around the lakes together as she ran circles around ideas), Michael Kuz (with pipes over a chess board and a thousand intriguing theories from Poland and back, and beyond), Eric Schmidt (around the BBQ clutching Michigan IPA and a sense that everything is alright on the home front so long as the bass are biting), Freke Ette (as elusive as he is kind and quick, whether addressing fashion, the feminine, exegesis or eschatology), as well as the rest of those with whom I shared the second—and so too the second and a half—floor of the Political Science Department in good ’ole Baton Rouge. I should also like to thank my dear friends Angelo Lupinetti and Aroop Bhattasali, both of whom have listened many times to my attempts at articulating what exactly I have been essaying to write herein. Though we may be geographically distant, we are ever close in spirit. Or, as better once said by Montaigne: “I know that the arms of friendship are long enough to reach from the one end of the world to the other.” Finally, many thanks to my great love, Morganne Klemke, for your encouragement and understanding over the final stretch of this homeward road: Θάλαττα! Θάλαττα! iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................vi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................1 2. MONTESQUIEU: AMBIVALENCE OF THE HEART: ON GENERAL AND PARTICULAR PASSIONS......................................................23 3. MONTESQUIEU: OPENING OF THE UNIVERSE: THE EARTH, COMMERCE, AND THE RIGHT OF NATIONS...............................63 4. TOCQUEVILLE: THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION’S REACH: EQUALIZING CONDITIONS....................................................................................108 5. TOCQUEVILLE: GENERALIZING IDEAS AND SENTIMENTS: THE EFFECTUAL TRUTH OF le semblable.............................................................151 6. MANENT: WESTERN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT: HUMANITY AND A HISTORY OF POLITICAL FORMS.....................................193 7. MANENT: THE CITY IN METAMOROPHOSIS: THE WESTERN DYNAMIC AND AMERICAN DYNAMISM...............................232 8. CONCLUSION............................................................................................................274 REFERENCES................................................................................................................278 VITA................................................................................................................................292 v ABSTRACT Many in the West today talk about the emergent unity of humanity, as social scientists examine the world through “global values,” assessing “global opinion”; economists study the “global economy” and “global finance”; historians write of “universal history;” legal scholars speak of “global domestic politics” and “world society,” while advocating “transnational justice”; political pundits announce the death of the nation-state. One could list additional examples illustrating the same apparent fact: a growing sense of global unity, and a universalist perspective on things social, economic, legal, historical, and political. To what extent, however, is this phenomenon—often referred to as “globalization”—an extension of liberalism, or instead an accident following upon it? Do all liberal thinkers embrace it, whereas opponents are necessarily anti-liberal thinkers? While some are partisans of universalism, and certain others are partisans of particularism, there is nonetheless a moderate, middle, and liberal, perspective. The works of Montesquieu, Tocqueville, and Pierre Manent shed light on this view, offering resources for understanding the importance of particular political communities within a broader theoretical horizon of humanity. Each in their own way defends the integrity of political bodies, denies that the universal perspective is the only legitimate one, and recognizes that without differences and distinctions across the political landscape, self-government and the freedom of action is impossible. The liberalism of Montesquieu, Tocqueville, and Manent, demonstrates that the human condition is a political condition. Thus, the mediation of political forms is requisite for human flourishing—particular communities are necessary for individuals and peoples to manifest their universal humanity. vi 1. INTRODUCTION “The drive to the universal and homogeneous state remains the dominant ethical ‘ideal’ to which our contemporary society appeals for meaning in its activity.” —George Grant, Technology and Empire, 89 “It is thus evident that virtue must be a care for every city, or at least every one to which the term applies truly and not merely in a manner of speaking. For otherwise the partnership becomes an alliance which differs from others—from [alliances of] remote allies—only by location. And law becomes a compact and, as the sophist Lycophron says, a guarantor among one another of the just things, but not the sort of thing to make the citizens good and just. But that the matter stands thus is evident. For even if one were to bring the locations together into one, so that the city of the Megarians were fastened to that of the Corinthians by walls, it would still not be a single city.” —Aristotle, The Politics, 1280b5-15 Among the many things Aristotle’s political science teaches is that one may learn something about the character of a given political situation by paying attention to the manner and reasons for which honors or prizes are awarded.1 Adopting this
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