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Notes/Summary of Political Thought 2022/2023 - Univeristy of Antwerp (Eric Fabri)
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Political Thought - IBDS1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Political thought?
Political thought= a compromise between political theory and political philosophy
Political philosophy= traditional name for the branch of philosophy that deals with politics
Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Grotius, Locke, Rousseau, …
Traditional question: legitimation of authority and best political organisation
Can there be a “best” political organisation?
o According to the “true” human nature? To the laws of History ? To religious
revelation ? To the rational organisation of society? According to what?
Political theory= reaction to the (too) wide perspective of political philosophy
After WWII: need for thinking what happened and perplexity of classical philosophy
Hannah Arendt (among others) decided to call herself a political theorist
Why? Political theory …
o Is made by an individual in a definite social context
o Is context dependant: we ask different questions at different times
Example: Arendt and the Holocaust, question of slavery, feminism, black lives
matter, …
o Bears political stakes: political theory is political (it makes an argument)
Political thought = An englobing Compromise: relies on the corpus of political philosophy in order to
critically think on justice, democracy, borders, inequalities, rights, etc.
Philosophy ?
o Philosophy as a set of beliefs (a philosophy)
o Philosophy as ‘boring’ books
o Philosophy as an activity of interrogation
Goal of this course : combine the three. Read classical texts in order to stimulate your own
critical thinking on democracy, inequalities, justice, etc.
Philosophy is intrinsically critical : why are things/representations as they are? We need to
question “evidences” and “axioms”
To sum up:
Same object, but different perspectives
Theoria (political philosophy) VS Praxis (political theory)
Department of philosophy VS department of political science?
Goal: make an argument in a definite social context VS understanding the political dimension
of being?
1.2 Democracy
How do we define “democracy”?
Problem: this term is used in very different contexts
As a descriptor: a democratic regime, decision, assembly, etc.
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, As an indicator of political legitimacy: very strong link democracy – legitimacy Is not
democratic!
As a decision-making mode: democracy in the workplace
But the expectations are not the same at all levels
We defend democracy in politics and accept tyranny in the workplace
So how do we define “democracy”?
A. Etymology; the power of Demos, demos-kratos
Demos= the people
Kratos= the force, the power
Abraham Lincoln famous definition: “Government of the people, for the people, and by the
people” Problem:
o On who can the people exercise the power other than themselves?
o The idea is that people A have power over people A, not people B
o “For the people”: obviously they wouldn’t govern over themselves in the interest of
another people
Problem: once we have said that, we haven’t said anything multiple questions left:
o Who is the demos?
Only people with Belgian nationality
No people under 18 years old
For long: no women
Why these restrictions?
o How does he use his authority?
Delegates, representatives
o Over whom? The non-citizens? The non-humans? Children?
Why do humans have the right to exercise power over animals, nature, … ?
Right to destroy?
Limit right to vote to a certain age? Exclude seniors from voting?
Why is it important everybody can vote? Who is “everybody”?
o Why is he sovereign?
o Is it a good form of government?
o Can the majority impose its rule on minorities?
B. Democracy as Sovereign Will ?
Democracy = regime in which the people decide of their laws (direct, indirect or referendum)
o Direct connection between what people want and laws
o Is this enough to define “democracy”?
Is what people want right? The question of limits and hubris
o Example: majority vote to ban religious freedom
o What about other liberties? Referendum SWTZ: question comes from the people
o The fear of democracy (Plato)
o Majority decides to consume and not care about environmental damage?
o What about other liberties? Free markets?
General question: “Are there things that the sovereign people cannot do?”
o Is there an antidemocratic use of democratic power?
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,C. Democracy and (Human) Rights
Solution: add the guarantee of human rights and basic liberties
Is this enough to define “democracy”?
o You can have rights in a non-democratic regime
Example: Classical England : King with strong powers, yet limited by a bill of
rights (limited power)
o You can have rights and still suffer domination
Republicans and Neorepublicans : freedom as non-domination
Another sense of the idea of people sovereignty : there is no authority
superior to the people who can veto one of his decisions
It’s not enough to have rights and liberties, the idea of democracy also calls for a form of popular
sovereignty
D. Provisional definition
Democracy = sovereign power vested in people & individual liberties and human rights
Negative and positive aspects
Yet, this definition is only the beginning of our problems: how do we translate this on an
institutional point of view ?
Different examples: the Iroquois nations, Inuit, USSR, and Western democracies (?)
What are the institutions of a democracy?
o Could we say that direct democracy is “more democratic” than indirect democracy
for instance ?
o What makes a political system “democratic”? Sovereignty? Rights?
o What is the “democratic ideal” ? Why is it normative ?
Do the principles of democracy imply something in terms of economic distribution ?
o Rousseau: no citizen should get rich enough to buy another one, or too poor to be
forced to sell himself to another
1.3 (In)equality
All men are born equal ? In theory and in practice
The question is “why is inequality a problem for democracy ? “
Economic inequalities convert into political inequalities
Inequality of what ?
o Equality is not identity
o Rights – do we all have the same rights?
In theory and in practice
o Gender – equal pay is not a real principle yet
o Discrimination of minorities
o Opportunities?
o Wealth inequality or income inequality ?
Focus on economic inequalities
The importance of perceptions
o Poor people overestimate their wealth, wealthier people underestimate it
We underestimate the proportion of economic inequalities
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, o Million vs Billion
o Example 1: if a million of seconds roughly amounts to 11 days and a half, how much
will you wait if you wait a billion of seconds ?
How to measure economic inequalities ?
o Do we include debt ?
o Actual vs virtual wealth ?
Income vs wealth
The reproduction of economic inequalities
1.3.1 Inheritance as an equalizing institution?
Does inheritance fragment fortunes?
Yes: intuitive evidence (at least in comparison to male primogeniture)
No: the snowball effect
Imagine you have a capital of 1000 and an average rate of 4%. Each year you have 40 euros
of dividend that you reinvest immediately
o After 10 years : 1480.24 euros
o After 20 years : 2191
o After 30 years : 3243
o After 40 years : 4801
o After 60 years: 10519
Imagine you receive a million when you’re eighteen : if you die at 78, and have an annual
interest rate of 4%, at the end of your life, you have around 10.5 Millions
Corrections: inflation, spending, taxation (if any)
1.3.2 The inheritance of Wealth
“When the rate of return on capital significantly exceeds the growth rate of the economy (as it did
through much of history until the nineteenth century and as is likely to be the case again in the
twenty-first century), then it logically follows that inherited wealth grows faster than output and
income. People with inherited wealth need save only a portion of their income from capital to see
that capital grow more quickly than the economy as a whole. Under such conditions, it is almost
inevitable that inherited wealth will dominate wealth amassed from a lifetime’s labor by a wide
margin, and the concentration of capital will attain extremely high levels—levels potentially
incompatible with the meritocratic values and principles of social justice fundamental to modern
democratic societies.” - Thomas Piketty, Capital, p. 34.
Why is it a problem?
Wealth is easily transformed into political power
“In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule—at least not in the causal
sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic
elites or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo
bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favour policy
change, they generally do not get it.” Rich Americans determine policy
Does it really make sense to speak of equality between a billionaire and someone that has to
combine two jobs to pay the rent ?
Equal opportunity ? Meritocracy ?
Equal capacity to participate?
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