American Political Thought

¶ … right' in the light of Alexis De Tocqueville's book, Democracy in America. The paper further expands on the idea of right as presented by other thinkers including Hegel, Bancroft and most recently Hardt and Negri. Every person is born with an inherent sense of right and born which may later be altered, shaped or influenced by the society and person's own experiences.

Philosophers have always been concerned with what they term the 'idea of right' and have expounded theories on how it is acquired, why it is needed and what happened when it ceases to exist. Alexis De Tocqueville was one such thinker who in his Magnus opus, Democracy in America, instructed readers to acquire an idea of right for he argued that it was impossible to build a great nation without a sense of right and wrong.

Here idea of right must not be confused with 'rights' of people or right to certain important things like life, freedom or religion but here right is used in the context of virtue. Tocqueville maintained that without an idea of right, it was impossible to conceive a great nation. People and governments must know what is right in order to proceed in the most appropriate direction, a direction that would ultimately yield most beneficial results.

He wrote in Book I, Chapter 14 of his Democracy in America that: "No great people without an idea of right -- How the idea of right can be given to a people -- Respect for right in the United States -- Whence it rises. After the general idea of virtue, I know no higher principle than that of right; or rather these two ideas are united in one. The idea of right is simply that of virtue introduced into the political world.

It was the idea of right that enabled men to define anarchy and tyranny, and that taught them how to be independent without arrogance and to obey without servility. The man who submits to violence is debased by his compliance; but when he submits to that right of authority, which he acknowledges in a fellow creature, he rises in some measure above the person who gives the command.

There are no great men without virtue; and there are no great nations -- it may almost be added, there would be no society -- without respect for right .. " Tocqueville's idea of right has been discussed and debated over the years resulting in even more theories on the notion of right. Classical political theory of the idea of right divided it into two branches or in simpler words, it asserts that right originates from two sources i.e. law and ethics.

Legal idea of right means enforcement of right through various legal mechanisms such as court trial, treaties, and agreements and here force can be used to declare supremacy of right. On the other hand, ethical notion of idea dwells on self-enforced law of justice in a person's daily interactions with others. A person needs to possess an idea of what is right in order to operate with fairness and justice in his own personal sphere.

Tocqueville's idea of right has been shared by many other thinkers including Bancroft who in his massive 'History of the United States' asserted that it was idea of right and justice that led to demise of English imperialism. He maintains that when people decide to enforce the supremacy of right, revolution is the natural result. Bancroft believed that in the evolution of nations and shaping of history, the guiding principle has always been 'God-directed progress'.

He felt that United States had turned into a great nation because it has a clear idea of right. Derek H. Davis (2004) throws light on Bancroft idea of right and explains that his work "was grounded in the proposition that the United States, under God's sovereign hand, was evolving into the perfect state, displaying all of these positive virtues.

The apogee of this unfolding plan for the United States was the Declaration of Independence, a document seen by Bancroft to embody everything signaling the culmination of God's grand plan for the advancement of the human race.

Rooted in principles of "eternal justice," it represented "the highest creative powers of which man is capable" and the assertion of right for the entire world of mankind." " Most philosophers with the exception of few agree with Tocqueville that idea of right is needed to lay the foundation of a great nation or a nation that could withstand the test of time. Hegel agrees with Tocqueville that idea of right is important since it demolishes the institution of injustice.

Throughout the history of the United States, we have seen how right and not might has been in control. African-Americans were subjected to injustices of slavery but right eventually prevailing, thus uprooting 'wrong' and 'unjust' elements. Hegel believed that it was this guiding principle that the whole universe was based on. Hegel maintains that, " .. The conception, the idea of right asserted its authority all at once, and the old framework of injustice could offer no resistance to its onslaught.

A constitution, therefore, was established in harmony with the conception of right, and on this foundation all future legislation was to be based ... Emotions of a lofty character stirred men's minds at that time; a spiritual enthusiasm thrilled through the world, as if the reconciliation between the divine and the secular was now first accomplished." Similarly, Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay, Sovereignty of Ethics (1878) also exalted the supremacy of the idea of right.

He agreed with other thinkers and felt that idea of right governs all laws including natural and universal laws. He maintained that it was this idea of right that guides and governs equilibrium. "The idea of right exists in the human mind, and lays itself out in the equilibrium of Nature, in the equalities and periods of our system, in the level of seas, in the action and reaction of forces. Nothing is allowed to exceed or absorb the rest; if it do, it is disease, and is.