Modern Political Thought

Politics

Modern Political Thought

The transition from a feudal serf economy to a capitalist market economy was one of the fundamental shifts which have produced modernity as we know it. This essay aims to understand how the authors of The Prince and Leviathan, Niccolo Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes would think about the transition and how these two great minds would relate to the issue of capitalism. Capitalism is a funny game that continually creates a series of boom and bust cycles throughout our modern history. Take the 1926 real estate craze that occurred in Florida. The United States economy was cooking along on all cylinders and good times were everywhere. No one was thinking about the Great Depression that would occur just a few years later. The rich and happy of 1926 figured that all was well as often is the case in Capitalism. Prosperity and growth were infinite -- nothing could slow this economy. However, just as fast as it rose, the real estate market of the era suddenly and without warning bottomed out. Many lost fortunes overnight. "The prices were so inflated that to buy a condo-style property in 1926, you would've had to pay the same as you would now have to pay for a luxury home in the guard-gated communities in Miami ($4,500,000) -- without adjusting for inflation!" (Greatest Market Crashes) Pan ahead just a few decades to 1990. Corporate America was becoming extremely competitive as the world moved into a more global-based market economy fueled by a new technology boom that had no potential end in sight. All of the big wigs of Corporate America were forced to address not only their international just in time six sigma-based manufacturing strategies but now their Human Recourses strategies had to be revamped because of the more diverse employees needed to handle the new international flare of the 90's. However, the dot.com era was just another example of life for those living in a capitalistic society. Just like 1926, things were going so well. "Yahoo jumped $19.44 to $124.94 by the close of regular trading a day after the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings. Other Net stocks are riding Yahoo's wave: Amazon.com was up 6% at $35.06, Priceline.com jumped 10% to $35.62, and Lycos gained 6% to $44.25. America Online rose 3% to $57.44. The run-up comes after yesterday's sell-off, sparked by anticipation of Yahoo's earnings report. Yahoo's stock yesterday hit its calendar year low." (Hu and Hansen) To apply the possible thoughts of the two great authors, Machiavelli and Hobbs, to a modern day system that either directly or indirectly affects every man woman and child on the planet today, we have to first get a feel of who these men were.

Hobbs

Based on research by notablebiographies.com, the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes was born in Wiltshire, England on April 5, 1588 and lived until December 4, 1679. He is best known for establishing a clear base for Western political philosophy because of his viewpoint of social contract theory, which was a basis for his work of literary art, Leviathan. Like many great minds of the past, he held many interests like philosophy and political science. But he also dabbled in other fields like international history, geometry, physics of gases, theology and ethics.

Some of his original works in philosophy are still the foundation of modern assertions such as his view that 'human nature as a self-interested cooperation' in philosophical anthropology and materialism. His education consisted of a series of religious schools and eventually ending up in a private school and later Magdalen Hall which had ties to Hertford College, Oxford. His education was a very Puritan-based education. In 1610, Hobbes toured Europe on an academic trip and discovered that he had a love for scientific and critical methods thinking. He also studied classic Greek and Latin works which lead him to translating 'Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War.'

Hobbs book on his theories of civil government that related to the current political crisis of his time, a civil war, put him in the political spectrum as either a great mind or a political terrorist. That is because he related the state as 'a great artificial man or monster' composed of men (Leviathan). He closed his work with "Review and Conclusion," which appear to be direct responses to the war of his time. It was Hobbs who questioned if a king's subject's has a right to change their allegiance. He also was very critical of the former sovereign's power to protect his subjects and religious doctrine on 'grounds in the Commonwealth.' He made quite an impression on his rulers of the time and was almost killed for his views.

Machiavelli

According to the People web site, Niccolo Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469, in Florence, Italy and died of illness on June 21, 1527, in Florence, Italy. The famous author and politician's family were believed to be directly descended from the Marquesses of Tuscany. His father had prepared him well for public service by making sure that the son was proficient in grammar, rhetoric and Latin but unlike many great historic scholars, he never learned Greek. Machiavelli received his first political office in 1494 as a government clerk and an ambassador. He later gained experience in international negotiations when he was a diplomatic council that negotiated military affairs between 1499 and 1512 and also had some more exposure to the French court in the early 1500's.

Machiavelli's role as a military attache got him accused of anti-Medici campaigning so he was deposed from office, accused of conspiracy, and arrested in 1513. He was tortured but was never forced to confess to being a traitor and so after some time he was released and retired to house arrest status. That retreat allowed him to find time to write, The Prince, a political treatise that has put him into the history books of every civilization on the planet. Machiavelli described his exile as: "When evening comes, I return home [from work and from the local tavern] and go to my study. On the threshold, I strip naked, taking off my muddy, sweaty work day clothes, and put on the robes of court and palace, and, in this graver dress, I enter the courts of the ancients, and am welcomed by them, and there I taste the food that alone is mine, and for which I was born. And there I make bold to speak to them and ask the motives of their actions, and they, in their humanity, reply to me. And for the space of four hours I forget the world, remember no vexation, fear poverty no more, tremble no more at death; I pass indeed into their world." (Hale, p. 139)

Where did it all begin?

Capitalism had to begin somewhere and most scholars agree that the system in place that was the stepping stone for Capitalism was the period of Feudalism. Feudalism was a combination of legal and military obligations. These obligations were only practiced by the oligarchy or the warrior nobility of Europe. "We have seen above how necessary it is for a prince to have his foundations well laid, otherwise it follows of necessity he will go to ruin. The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws. I shall leave the laws out of the discussion and shall speak of the arms." (Machiavelli) The period when Feudalism ruled was during the Middle Ages. The period focused on the concepts of lords, vassals and fiefs and that entailed rule over the peasantry or a Feudal society.

Feudalism as a whole started to have problems because contracts to exchange land tenure for military service was a system that could not contain itself. The Lords literally ran out of land so they could not in turn pay their vassals. "Natural power is the eminence of the faculties of body, or mind; as extraordinary strength, form, prudence, arts, eloquence, liberality, nobility. Instrumental are those powers which, acquired by these, or by fortune, are means and instruments to acquire more; as riches, reputation, friends, and the secret working of God, which men call good luck. For the nature of power is, in this point, like to fame, increasing as it proceeds; or like the motion of heavy bodies, which, the further they go, make still the more haste." (Hobbs) They also had the controlling issues of reassigning land. As Feudalism began to waiver, Europe was building new prospects that involved transitioning from an agrarian system to one finance or money-based system. Machiavelli studied these times and The Prince could have served many Lords well.

What is capitalism?

Both Hobbs and Machiavelli were outcasts and discontents of their respective governments when they wrote their great works. This would probably make them critical of many types of restrictive governmental bodies. Modern capitalism is far less restrictive than what they were used to. When society evolved to try to give everyone a small piece of the big pie, it eventually called it Capitalism. "Over a period of a few centuries the 'long journey' toward capitalism extended in this direction: a complex and interlocking process which involved the formation of merchant and banking bourgeoisies, the appearance of nations and the establishment of modern states, the expansion of trade and the domination on a world scale, the development of techniques of transportation and production, the introduction of new modes of production and the emergence of new attitudes and ideas." (Beaud, 17)

There are still debates on whether capitalism is actually a system or if it is merely an ideal that we accept as true. Machiavelli felt that "ALL STATES, all powers, that have held and hold rule over men have been and are either republics or principalities." (Machiavelli) The question of capitalistic actuality comes into play if this process is nothing more than an ideal. Should the ideal or system be viewed as purely an economic entity or a political, social, and cultural entity? Hobbs master piece showed that he believed "that the greatest threat to human security was the anarchy of the 'State of Nature', and that to avoid that horrific condition, where life was 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short', men must contract to establish a sovereign power with sufficient authority to enforce laws and maintain order.' This sounds just like our modern version of capitalism. But does Hobbs view equate to the modern day China who applies capitalism to a Communist ideology to create a new ideal or is he referring to the United States apply capitalism to a republic to make an even different system of capitalism? Which then is a true representation of capitalism? "

The start date or prior versions of this system or ideal seemed to be in existence in other times and places throughout our history. But most historians believe that capitalism as we know it today originally developed near the mid 18th century and took on a new meaning in the late 19th century and then met its full term potential and through evolution in the 20th century grew to a global scale. In other words, the system or ideal was in place but so were the oligarchies and imperialists. The industrial revolution at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century was the straw that broke the camel's back and helped usurp European imperialism. Hobbs would have approved.

The only thing that matters was the fact that the feudal serfs and narcissistic kings were all gone -- or, have they simply been redefined? "Much of the social analysis that focuses on the injustices and inequalities in U.S. society has been influenced by the ideas of Karl Marx and the Marxist tradition. Central to Marxism is the understanding that capitalism is an economic system with two major classes. The capitalist class owns and controls the means of production, capital, and continually tries to increase its profits. The working class, which is the large majority of the population, sells their labor power, their capacity to work, in return for a wage. Profits come largely from paying employees less than the value they add to production. Marx called this exploitation." (Bohmer) Because imperialism final retreated, there must still be more of a social implication. "Such dominions thus acquired are either accustomed to live under a prince, or to live in freedom; and are acquired either by the arms of the prince himself, or of others, or else by fortune or by ability." (Machiavelli)

Industrial Revolution

The Prince has influenced many great leaders, "all great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely. (Sometimes they have learned this the hard way.) If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation: The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit." (Greene & Elffers) This line of reasoning clearly defines the British Empire. The industrial Revolution had a dramatic affect on not only Britain, but the entire world as imperialism also grew in direct proportion. "The entire population of these modified crown colonies amounted to 5,700,000 in 1898." (Abrams et al., 2022)

Consider that in just over one hundred years, the British nation transformed itself from a mainly rural and agrarian populace into a realm comprised of newly industrialized hamlets with main sources of income derived from the many new local factories, mines or workshops. The factories for example, required steady new sources of raw goods and materials and as a result, in order to maintain these supplies, Britain was forced as a nation to pursue and expand into a more global imperialistic system of colonialism. Machiavelli would have not covered this type of growth in The Prince. "I WILL leave out all discussion on republics, inasmuch as in another place I have written of them at length, 1 and will address myself only to principalities. In doing so I will keep to the order indicated above, and discuss how such principalities are to be ruled and preserved." (Machiavelli) The result was the growth of a nation expanding throughout the industrial revolution.

This expansion created many more individuals who were in an economic and political position that was equal to royalty more so than at any other time in history. These individuals became the new primary audiences for economic, political and social thinking. This new audience was much more cost effective and politically motivated as well as fully aware of social movements. "Capitalism is first and foremost a historical social system." (Wallerstein, p. 13) The church was beginning to lose its grip in general so it may have been fate that writers of the time were able to be so heavily influenced by the early and middle stages of the industrial revolution and the end of the Victorian Era. Thomas Hobbs held very strong anti-church and radical religious views. He would have appreciated the loss of the churches power and the capitalist drive to a more materialistic view of the world. Suddenly capitalism altered the economic systems of the world to incorporate the idea of free markets, free religion and free property rights.

What Capitalism offer the world

"The commonwealth is instituted when all agree in the following manner: I authorize and give up my right of governing myself to this man, or to this assembly of men, on this condition; that thou give up, thy right to him, and authorize all his actions in like manner." (Hobbs) Capitalism changed many notions about how things should be and offered new ideas that were accepted by some and rejected by others. These included a new concept of a private sector, property rights, economic growth, economic mobility and distribution of wealth. From these ideas came symptoms like competition, entrepreneurial motions and free markets. Machiavelli and Hobbs both had very strong historical ties to sovereign states and neither may have appreciated these notions of individual property rights and free labor for example. Over time however, both would have more than likely become supports of the capitalistic view of life.

In Leviathan, Hobbs clearly rejects the doctrines related to a separation of powers because he supports the idea that a sovereign must 'control civil, military, judicial and ecclesiastical powers.' However, a major advantage of capitalism is the removal of the sovereign institution controlling the all property and thus allowing for the notion of free ownership of property. In modern times, albeit the recent mortgage backed security debacle, contracts of ownership, shared risk, availability of loans for new projects, collateral for loans and credit are all solutions to the problems coming out of sovereign power which enhances economic growth.

Free markets were a side effect of property ownership. Machiavelli would have had a time understanding land could be acquired without marriage or war. "Now I say that those dominions which, when acquired, are added to an ancient state by him who acquires them, are either of the same country and language, or they are not. When they are, it is easier to hold them, especially when they have not been accustomed to self-government; and to hold them securely it is enough to have destroyed the family of the prince who was ruling them; because the two peoples, preserving in other things the old conditions, and not being unlike in customs, will live quietly together, as one has seen in Brittany, Burgundy, Gascony, and Normandy, which have been bound to France for so long a time: and, although there may be some difference in language, nevertheless the customs are alike, and the people will easily be able to get on amongst themselves. He who has annexed them, if he wishes to hold them, has only to bear in mind two considerations: the one, that the family of their former lord is extinguished; the other, that neither their laws nor their taxes are altered, so that in a very short time they will become entirely one body with the old principality. (Machiavelli)

The notion of a free markets entailed two meanings, one labor and the other economy. It took our civilization some time to learn to deal with the economic decisions that availed themselves such as transfers of money, goods, and services. Capitalism freed the coercive influence of sovereignty and opened up a need for all new capitalist mentalities. "The economic advantages of a free labor market could not make up for the social destruction wrought by it." (Polanyi, 77) The initial reaction by free markets was catastrophic at times because of a lack of experience in making viable economic decisions. Notions like bargaining, cooperating, and competing with each other was simply to foreign at first. Capitalism today entails free markets because there is no legal coercion. "There are many different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way. Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs' clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then -- never offend or deceive the wrong person." (Greene, & Elffers)

No More Cold War

Like a snake and a mongoose, Capitalism does have natural enemies. When the Berlin Wall was pulled, kicked, chiseled and hammered on until it fell on November 9, 1989, Communism played antagonist. Only a decade before the entire world was dealing with a constant threat of a first strike of the thousands of multi-head nuclear missiles aimed at the United States and its allies. The fall of the Soviet Union offered the rest of the world a glimpse of free market systems and the possibility of incorporating the combination of Democracy and capitalism. Today China mixes in free markets, capitalism and entrepreneurship. The Chinese did have a head start because of the open market system that the British lease for Hong Kong has expired. When the cold war was being systematically fought in other third world nations that had citizens living on a dollar day, their leaders still desired and expected the socio economic equality with the superpowers. Hobbs may have wanted Russia to win the cold war to get his fill of sovereign socialism and Machiavelli may have chosen the United States in order to provide its president with sound managerial cabinet advice. But what did occur was that the system that prevailed was designed to pass on the myth of democracy and capitalism. Most of these countries are still poor many years after the Soviet fall. Examples abound but consider after the Cold War what astounding progress was made with regional disputed countries like: