Short Hist of Western Pol Tht.Pdf

This brief narrative survey of political thought over the past two millennia explores key ideas that have shaped Western political traditions. Beginning with the Ancient Greeks’ classical emphasis on politics as an independent sphere of activity, the book goes on to consider the medieval and early modern Christian view of politics and its central role in providing spiritual leadership. Concluding with a discussion of present-day political thought, W. M. Spellman explores the return to the ancient understanding of political life as a more autonomous sphere, and one that doesn’t relate to anything beyond the physical world. Setting the work of major and lesser-known political philosophers within its historical context, the book offers a balanced and considered overview of the topic, taking into account the religious values, inherited ideas and social settings of the writers. Assuming no prior knowledge and written in a highly accessible style, A Short History of Western Political Thought is ideal for those seeking to develop an understanding of this fascinating and important subject. W. M. Spellman is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Asheville, USA. He is the author of A Concise History of the World since 1945; European Political Thought, 1600–1700 and John Locke, all published by Palgrave Macmillan. He also co-authored The West: A Narrative History (Prentice-Hall, USA). Also by the author JOHN LOCKE (1997) EUROPEAN POLITICAL THOUGHT, 1600–1700 (1998) A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE WORLD SINCE 1945 (2008) A SHORT HISTORY OF WESTERN POLITICAL THOUGHT W. M. Spellman © W. M. Spellman 2011 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978–0–230–54558–8 hardback ISBN 978–0–230–54559–5 paperback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Spellman,W.M. A short history of western political thought / W.M. Spellman. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978–0–230–54559–5 (pbk.) 1. Political science—History. 2. Political science—Philosophy— History. 3. Civilization, Western. I. Title. JA81.S64 2011 320.01—dc22 2011008058 10987654321 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 Printed and bound in China In Memory of Joseph M. Levine This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments viii Introduction: Civil Society and Human Flourishing 1 1 City-States and Republics c. 400 BCE–c. 400 CE 8 2 Heavenly Mandates, 400–1500 34 3 The Emergence of the Sovereign State, 1500–1700 59 4 From Subject to Citizen, 1700–1815 86 5 Ideology and Equality, 1815–1914 111 6 Breakdown and Uncertainty, 1914–2010 137 Conclusion: New Trials for Old Ideas 163 Notes 167 Further Reading 181 Index 183 vii Acknowledgments Authors of short surveys always rely on the work of specialist scholars in the field. The Cambridge University Press series in the history of political thought features balanced and in-depth essays by leading historians and political theorists. Each volume in the series also contains an excellent bibli- ography of recent literature in the field. Once again the administration at my home institution, and in particular Provost Katherine Whatley, allowed me valuable time for working on this project. The research librarians and circu- lation specialists at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, including Bryan Sinclair, Helen Dezendorf, and Leith Tate, helped to locate materi- als and expedite the inter-library loan process. Lynne Olin and University Librarian Jim Kuhlman kindly approved my annual requests for a quiet study carrel in Ramsey Library. My colleague Bill Sabo assisted with sug- gestions and timely criticism at the early stages when the outline of the book was being drafted, while the two anonymous readers for the press highlighted a number of omissions and offered some important correc- tions. Jenni Burnell at Palgrave kept the project moving forward with gentle reminders and timely updates. The book is dedicated to the memory of one of the leading cultural and intellectual historians of our day, Joseph M. Levine, a kind and gentle man who guided generations of graduate students into the great conversation. viii Introduction: Civil Society and Human Flourishing This brief survey of Western political thought, with its subject matter orig- inating in ancient Greece and its influence most significant in Western Europe and the Americas prior to the twentieth century, is written with the layperson and student reader in mind. The narrative is organized around views of human potential for participating in peaceful collective action. It assumes that the varieties of civil society adopted by peoples over the centuries, and the goals set for the exercise of political authority, represent an important facet of human adaptation to environment, or as the late George Sabine wrote in his 1937 classic A History of Political Theory, “social life and organization are primary biological survival devices.”1 Western political thought across the ages, then, represents a series of efforts to under- stand and solve the problems of group life and association. Often those efforts began with basic questions about the human condition. How can we as humans, given our nature and dispositions, best achieve whatever definition of the good life is accepted as proper? How can we balance the claims of the individual—much celebrated in the West since the eighteenth century—with the well-being of the entire community? To what extent is human behavior shaped by environment and culture? Are there bedrock constants, such as rationality and an innate moral sense, that distinguish humans in their efforts to live in community? Or are we motivated primar- ily by base passions and selfish predispositions that must be controlled or inhibited before any sort of collective social existence is possible? Many of these questions persist into our own day, of course, but the ideas that informed creative answers—whatever the outcomes—were many and extremely varied over the past two-and-a-half millennia, and in some cases still inspire contemporary debate. The authors and issues discussed here represent examples of some key ideas in the Western tradition, beginning with the classical Greek emphasis on politics as an autonomous sphere of activity, moving to the medieval and early modern Christian view of politics as a compartment of spiritual leadership, and concluding with the modern reinterpretation of political life as an independent field without reference to any larger metaphysical agenda. Many of the authors who maintained an overcast or skeptical view of human potential emphasized the need for civil 1 2 Introduction authority to play a coercive and directive role in society, while others who endorsed some form of consent and accountability shared a more sanguine reading of humankind’s capacity for good and as a result tended to call for specific limits on the power of the state. What follows, then, is an examination of some important Western thinkers and their work in historical context, providing what I hope is an accessible narrative that sets both the material and intellectual backdrop to a selective sampling of critical works. That wider backdrop includes social setting, economic patterns, religious values, and the inheritance of ideas. Since many of the key thinkers debated in this study, from Plato (c. 427–c. 348 BCE) and Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), to John Locke (1632–1704) and Karl Marx (1818–1883), were prolific writers who addressed significant philosophical, social, and religious questions, an adequate understanding of their political thought obligates us to know something of their deeper commitments and the broader cultural and intellectual milieu in which they were educated. No one writes about politics (or anything else, for that matter) in a vacuum, and more often than not the prompt to authorship is a deeply held conviction, or set of convictions, about the proper ordering of society in a world perceived to have gone awry. In their introduction to The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought

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