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Why Democracy Needs Aristocracy Luke C Why Democracy Needs Aristocracy Luke C. Sheahan Duquesne University Aristocratic Souls in Democratic Times. Edited by Richard Avramenko and Ethan Alexander-Davey. Lexington Books, 2018. 324 pp. $120 hardback. The concept of a trifunctional so- is all to say that for most of human ciety, a society composed of three history there were clear distinctions orders or three estates, is very old. It among classes, each with its own was even old when Plato famously purpose in society and each with organized his ideal polity into the its own strengths and weaknesses. philosopher-kings, guardians, and Their respective strengths were ex- producers in The Republic. This three- pected to counteract the deficiencies fold division was present in Athe- of other classes with the result that nian law from the earliest days; and, there was an interdependent and according to one philologist, it can complementary relationship among be traced deep into the traditions various orders in society. and cultures of prehistoric man.1 This hierarchy of virtues and roles Medieval society was likewise or- is obscured in democratic societies ganized into those who pray, those which insist upon the dogma of one who fight, and those who labor. This social class with no inherent distinc- LUKE C. SHEAHAN is Assistant Professor of tions among persons, certainly not Political Science at Duquesne University and of birth and station. Whatever the a Non-Resident Fellow at the Program for benefits of this modern conception of Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society order (and there are many), there are at the University of Pennsylvania. also a multitude of drawbacks, not 1 Georges Dumezil, L’ideologie Tripartie Des Indo-Europeens (Brussels: Latomus, 1958), cited least the shroud cast over the con- by Ethan Alexander-Davey on pp. xvi. tinuing and inescapable benefit of 132 • Volume XXXIII, Nos. 1 & 2, 2020 Luke C. Sheahan birth and wealth (consider, by way pressive array of essays on various of contrast, the influence of unelect- aristocratic thinkers in the modern ed technocrats such as Bill Gates and era. These include those who, like Elon Musk or the political success of Burke, lacked aristocratic status but middling members of the Bush and nonetheless defended the role of Clinton families). Other flaws—such an aristocracy, and also those who, as the lack of standards characteris- like Tocqueville, were themselves tic of consumerism and the appeal aristocrats. All of the thinkers the es- to the lowest common denominator says address wrote in the context of in entertainment rampant in demo- an emerging democratic society and cratic societies—have been noted thought deeply about the role of an and criticized since Plato. Other so- aristocracy, or at least of the aristo- ciological critiques of mass demo- cratic virtues, in such a society. This cratic society have been common in volume avoids the common trap of recent times, many noting that the many discussions of aristocracy—or, poison of envy is more and not less indeed, of traditional institutions in evident as equality increases.2 Rather general—that dismiss them as mere than forging brotherhood, the demo- precursors to the institutions of the cratic polity of purportedly free and present order. According to this line equal citizens produces individuals of thinking, whatever value is to be alienated from their fellows. Casual found in previous political orders is defenses of an aristocracy as a class found in such of their institutions as separate unto itself have generally presage in some way what we value made these points. But inquiries into in our democratic age. This volume the implications of aristocracy for explicitly eschews what C. S. Lewis political theory are much less com- called “chronological snobbery.” mon. Fortunately, Aristocratic Souls Rather, these essays explore the pos- in Democratic Times remedies this sibility that what those institutions deficit in the scholarly literature. of a bygone era may contribute are Richard Avramenko (University precisely what our era lacks because of Wisconsin-Madison) and Ethan it is democratic. Enamored of demo- Alexander-Davey (Campbell Uni- cratic values and well aware of the versity) have assembled an im- benefits of democratic virtues, our democratic minds struggle to discern 2 See p. xxii, note 4. Alexander-Davey cites the benefit of the aristocratic. This is a number of critiques including C. Wright a time when an “open mind” is most Mills, The Power Elite (Oxford: Oxford Uni- needed. The democratic mind must versity Press, 2000); Sheldon S. Wolin, Democ- consider that the democratic age has racy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the its own foibles. Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism (Princeton, The book is divided into three sec- NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010); Jeffrey Edward Green, The Shadow of Unfairness: A tions, each devoted to thinkers in the Plebeian Theory of Liberal Democracy (Oxford: continental, British, and American Oxford University Press, 2016). traditions respectively. The first is Why Democracy Needs Aristocracy HUMANITAS • 133 the largest section containing es- such as prudence, moderation, re- says by Andrew Fear, Brian Sand- sponsibility, and the like. Living this berg, Jay Smith, Jerry Salyer, Ethan way ennobles men, allowing them to Alexander-Davey, Jeffrey Church, rise above the mass. But the masses and Pedro Blas Gonzalez. While do not like that, so they revolt. the essays are well written and im- The continental section is weight- pressive in both their variety and ed toward an examination of French cogency, certain themes emerge. For aristocrats. Sandberg, Smith, and example, the role of the reactionary Salyer tackle this particular topic. aristocrat in the chaos of a post- Sandberg argues that French nobles aristocratic society arises in several viewed and used credit in the same essays. Fear discusses Tacitus’ depic- way merchants did. This was true tion of the aristocracy in the early during the wars of religion until imperial age. Its role there was not to 1800. And it was true of both Prot- rule again—it could not do that—but estants and Catholics. Aristocratic to sacrifice itself in defense of the practices of credit in war-making old republic for the good of Rome. were the precursors of the use of Theirs was an “aristocracy of sacri- credit today in the economies of our fice.” In a similar manner, Church’s liberal democracies. Smith’s essay on essay on Nietzsche challenges the the work and influence of Henri de traditional view that Nietzsche’s Boulainvilliers depicts a man who aristocracy is predatory. Rather, Ni- wrote perceptively on the rights of etzsche’s “Über-Mensch” is a sort of aristocrats. In a time when rights self-overcoming man who redeems were increasingly accorded on the liberal society rather than rules it. He basis of equality and merit, this aris- provides spiritual value in a world tocrat argued for rights based on lin- that has lost meaning. Nietzsche’s eage. The reason that lineage could aristocrat is one who can live in the be a source of rights was that it could modern world and even improve it, be a source of meritocratic value. while escaping its flaws. But there is Smith writes of the views of Alès de a sacrificial element in Nietzsche’s Corbet, who was heavily influenced aristocrat. He strives for greatness by Boulainvilliers: “True nobility is in a world that is suspicious of hi- created only when moral qualities erarchical ranking, even while he is have become such an unconscious showing the way to a more spiritu- habit in some families that the pos- ally meaningful existence for every- terity of those families comes to be one. A similar spiritual aristocracy recognized, respected, and honored is present in Gonzalez’s essay on by their fellow citizens” (64). Salyer’s Ortega y Gasset’s The Revolt of the essay on the French reactionary Louis Masses. The problem of mass man, de Bonald’s “theory of a Christian Gonzalez writes, is that he resents elite” points out that Bonald antici- the freedom that comes from the pated the rise of the liberal elites and cultivation of a multitude of virtues the criticisms of Christopher Lasch. 134 • Volume XXXIII, Nos. 1 & 2, 2020 Luke C. Sheahan Bonald argued that a society that Burke’s relationship with four aris- hews to hierarchy and tradition is tocrats of his day and how that af- more humane than a liberal society fected his broader political views of “equals,” which is ultimately ruled of permanence and change. Crowe by a self-serving elite. sees in Burke’s relationship with Ethan Alexander-Davey discusses these men a tempered view of the the thought of Konstantin Leon- caricature of Burke’s noble aristo- tiev, the “Russian Nietzsche.” Like crat. These men had their failings. Bonald, Leontiev emphasized the Some engaged in the very financial importance of a ruling class that em- speculations that Burke condemned, bodied as well as promoted beauty impoverishing themselves in the and greatness. Aesthetics and reli- process. That wasn’t the point. The gion were the highest ends of man, point was that the best members and their most strident and capable of the aristocratic class brought to defenders were the Church and the political order virtues buttressed by aristocracy. The role of the aristocrat property and religion, which in turn is to uphold standards for everyone restrained the radical urges of the across a variety of spheres. This democratic age. includes aesthetics and greatness of In the spirit of Crowe’s discus- character, but also national cultural sion of specific aristocrats in Burke’s distinctiveness. social circle, Wales considers the The section on English political life and writings of Alan Ian Percy, thought features essays from Geof- the Eighth Duke of Northumber- frey Vaughn, Ian Crowe, and Jona- land, perhaps one of the last of the than Wales.
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