We analyze these forms of government as sets of institutions for collective decision-making.  Our goal is to develop an understanding of the interactions between government and economy.  How are the different forms of government conceived and implemented?  Which is economically most efficient?  In what ways do governments impair economic efficiency?  Does a democratic society depend on a free-market economy, or does a free-market economy require a democratic society?  The overall objective is to understand the evolution modern democracy from a long totalitarian tradition.

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a Florentine political philosopher in the court of Lorenzo di Medici.  His book The Prince (1515) is a textbook on pragmatic totalitarian politics largely inspired by Lorenzo's predecessor, Cesare Borgia, a devious, amoral leader whom Machiavelli hoped would reunite Italy.  It is better for the prince to be feared than loved: "...men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails."  While the hatred of his people is a danger to him, "..when neither their property nor honor is touched, the majority of men live content, he has only to contend with the ambition of a few, whom he can curb with ease in many ways."   The prince may resort to any vicious behavior he wishes as long as it ultimately increases his power and the welfare of his subjects.

The Social Contract

The "Social Contract" is the agreement our primitive ancestors supposedly made thousands of years back in the primal "state of nature" to surrender certain liberties in exchange for social order.  Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau have different conceptions of this primal "state of nature" and the social contract under which government was created, although in all of their versions the social contract imposes upon the government specific responsibilities vis-a-vis its citizens.  The principal functions of government are to protect the lives, remaining liberties and property rights of its citizens.  These liberal conceptions of government provided important ideological foundations for the American and the French revolutions.

The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) took a distinctly pessimistic view of human nature: "For the laws of nature, as "justice," "equity," "modesty," "mercy," and, in sum, 'doing to others as we would be done to,' of themselves, without the terror of some power to cause them to be observed, are contrary to our natural passions, that carry us to partiality, pride, revenge and the like.... And in all places where men have lived by small families, to rob and spoil one another has been a trade, and so far from being reputed against the law of nature, that the greater spoils they gained, the greater was their honor."  His book Leviathan (1651) describes a primal state of nature in which human life was "nasty, brutish, and short."  People created government and surrendered individual rights to it largely out of fear.  Hobbes describes a "commonwealth" in which the citizens "confer all their power and strength upon one man, or upon one assembly of men, that may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto one will: which is as much as to say, to appoint one man, or assembly of men, to bear their person....And he that carrieth this person is called sovereign, and said to have sovereign power; and everyone besides, his subject."  Hobbes argues that, although the totalitarian sovereign originally derives his political power from the people (a contradiction to the "divine right of kings" doctrine), his power is absolute and not subject to review by the people.

The English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) was the founder of empiricism, the doctrine that all knowledge is derived from experience rather than from innate ideas.  Locke was an ardent supporter of religious toleration.  His principal publications were his Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Two Treatises on Civil Government (both 1690).  Locke believes people are fundamentally good, and conceives of the original state of nature as happy, and dominated by reason and tolerance, but insecure because it lacks "an established, settled, known law" dispensed by "a known and indifferent judge" with the "power to back and support the sentence when right."   All human beings retain fundamental rights to "life, health, liberty, and possessions."  The government is created under the social contract, and is obligated to reflect and uphold natural law and guarantee these rights.  Conversely, "...every man that has any possessions or enjoyment of any part of th edominions of any government does thereby give his tacit consent, and is as far forth obliged to obedience to the laws of that government...."

Locke conceived of a government with supreme power in a "legislative" that promulgates "one rule for rich and poor" for the good of the people, and that taxes only by consent of the people.  The day-to-day business of government is performed by an executive; the  power to make war and peace, leagues and alliances," etc. are exercised by a "federative" branch..  (This design of checks and balances between branches of government is a fundamental concept embodied in the US Constitution.)  Locke also developed the doctrine that in some circumstances the people had a right, if not a moral obligation, to overthrow a corrupt government.

To conclude, the power that every individual gave the society when he entered into it can never revert to the individuals again as long as the society lasts, but will always remain in the community, because without this there can be no community, no commonwealth, which is contrary to the original agreement; so also when the society has placed the legislative in an assembly of men, to continue in them and their successors, with direction and authority for providing such successors, the legislative can never revert to the people while that government lasts; because having provided a legislative with power to continue forever, they have given up their political power to the legislative and cannot resume it.  But if they have set limits to the duration of their legislative, and made this supremem power in any person or assembly, only temporary, or else, when by the miscarriages of those in authority it is forfeited, upon the forfeiture, or at the determination of the time set, it reverts to the society, and the people have a right to act as supreme and continue the legislative in themselves, or erect a new form, or under the old form place it in new hands, as they think good.

The French philosopher and political theorist Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) paints a romantic picture of the primal state of nature.  Rousseau's principal books are the Discourse on the Inequalities of Men (1754) and the Social Contract (1762).  In his view, "natural man" was innately noble and all people equal.  But natural man was corrupted by property, agriculture, science, and commerce.  Rousseau viewed the social contract as a response to the inequalities arising in early society.  "What a man loses as a result of the social contract is his natural liberty and his unqualified right to lay hands on all that tempts him, provided only that he can compass its possession.  What he gains is civil liberty and the ownership of what belongs to him.  That we may labol under no illusion concerning these compensations, it is well taht we distinguish between natural liberty which the individual enjoys so long as he is strong enough to maintain it, and civil liberty which is curtailed by the general will."

Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau show a clear progression in the conceptions of the obligations of government to its citizens.  Hobbes sees government as the exchange of liberty for peace, and isn't much concerned with citizens' happiness, but Rousseau remarks "One can live peacefully enough in a dungeon, but such peace will hardly , of itself, ensure one's happiness."  The progressively rosier descriptions of the primal state of nature in Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau parallel the improving standards of living in England and France over the 17th and 18th centuries.  The potato had been introduced from America, and quickly became a dietary staple, increasing food production, improving nutrition and reducing food prices.  Increasing economic surpluses permitted more leisure and new aesthetics.  Neo-classical paintings, sculptures and garden styles reflecting a new sense of nature as orderly and beautiful, not chaotic and hostile.

The basic premise arising in all of these writings is that society involves a compromise in which certain individual freedoms are forgone in the interests of personal health, safety, liberty and property ownership.  Locke's "inalienable" rights became a mantra for American democracy: "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."  In the Western democratic tradition, the fundamental purpose of government is to guarantee these rights for its citizens.  (It appears that the "pursuit of happiness" means getting rich.)

We review the fundamentals of democracy, fascism and communism below and in the following lecture.

Democracy

The word "democracy" derives from the Greek demos (people) and kratein (power to rule).  The rise of democracy in Athens occurred with the fall of the tyrant Pisistratus and the return of Cleisthenes to Athens in 510 BC.  After the decline of Athens following the Peloponnesian War with Sparta, functional democracies did not fully reemerge in western culture until the 19th century, as advisory councils to monarchs gradually evolved into true legislatures.

The basic principles of democracy are eloquently described by Pericles (498-429 BC) in in his eulogy for Athenians who died in the battle of Megaris in the Peloponnesian War (430 BC).  His eulogy emphasizes the personal liberty, inclusiveness, openness and equality of Athens.

"Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses.  No one, so long as he has it in him to be of service to the state, is kept in political obscurity because of poverty. And, just as our political life is free and open, so is our day-to-day life in our relations with each other.  We do not get into a state with our next-door neighbor if he enjoys himself in his own way, nor do we give him the kind of black looks which, though they do no real harm, still do hurt people's feelings.  We are free and tolerant in our private lives; but in public affairs we keep to the law.  This is because it commands our deep respect.

"We give our obedience to those whom we put in positions of authority, and we obey the laws themselves, especially those which are for the protection of the oppressed, and those unwritten laws which it is an acknowledged shame to break. . . . Here each individual is interested not only in his own affairs but in the affairs of the state as well: even those who are mostly occupied with their own business are extremely well-informed on general politics -- this is a peculiarity of ours: we do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.  We Athenians, in our own persons, take our decisions on policy or submit them to proper discussions: for we do not think that there is an incompatibility between words and deeds; the worst thing is to rush into action before the consequences have been property debated. . . .  Taking everything together then, I declare that our city is an education to Greece, and I declare that in my opinion each single one of our citizens, in all the manifold aspects of life, is able to show himself the rightful lord and owner of his own person, and do this, moreover, with exceptional grace and exceptional versatility.  And to show that this is no empty boasting for the present occasion, but real tangible fact, you have only to consider the power which our city possesses and which has been won by those very qualities which I have mentioned."

[from Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, translated by Rex Warner (New York: Penguin Classics, 1954)].

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rihts, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government....

Aristotle (384-322 BC) argues that a stable democracy requires a large middle class to minimize political antagonism between rich and poor.  Leaders should be elected "by all, from all" limited to brief terms in office.  There should be no life offices; and no office should be held twice by the same person.  Aristotle argues for a strict one-person-one-vote system for all adults; voting rights should not be limited to property owners, lest the nation lapse into oligarchy as wealth becomes concentrated in the hands of a few.

Democracy is typically implemented via representative government, because conducting universal referenda to settle every item of public business is obviously impractical.  The voters elect their representatives to do the work of government while they go about their private business.  It is sometimes argued that representative government obviates most of the need for informed voters.  The representatives are generally expected to vote in accord with their own judgments rather than serve as mere spokespersons for their constituents, and are thus only strictly accountable to their constituents at election time.  Rousseau quipped that the people of England are only free during a general election, and are thence enslaved to their government.

Democracy depends on free speech and a free press by which citizens can become informed and debate policy.  John Dewey was an eloquent proponent of universal democracy supported by an educated electorate: "For what is the faith of democracy...except faith in the capacity of the intelligence of the common man?"

Voting is typically by secret ballot, which precludes coercion of votes.  A secret ballot also precludes reliable trading of votes ("Nader-trading," for example), since there is no way to verify compliance with a vote-trading agreement.

Implementing a democracy requires dealing with some important specifics:  Who gets to vote and who doesn't?  What voting procedures should we use?  What rights do minorities retain in the face of a majority opposition?

An upcoming lecture will explore the connections between democracy and free-market capitalism proposed by Joseph Schumpeter, Milton Friedman and Mancur Olson.  Later on we will examine how a democracy can adopt any number of alternative voting systems, and that different voting systems can yield entirely different outcomes,  so that determining the "will of the people" is not necessarily as simple as it sounds.  We will also revisit the theory of democracy in the context of government failures, when we analyze ways in which the democratic process can be subverted by special interest groups, public apathy, etc.

Lecture on Fascism and Communism