Lecture 8: Theories on Maintaining Social Order

Tuesday, 1 December 2020 2:02 PM

The second generation of Political Theory/Theorizing

• 1st generation is about the establishment of political order
• 2nd generation is focused on maintaining that order
• The order needs to be preserved or maintained, but what about if there are
problems and it does now work?

Theories on Maintaining the Social Order

Key Question
• Can government effectively govern in the face of crises? (economic crisis,
caused by humans or natural causes, typhoons, pandemic)
• Does it have the capacity to change itself and us citizens, what are the
extent and limits of its capacity to reform?
• How should we view the existence of a crisis if the reform is not enough? Is
it an opportunity to adopt radical change, or go back to tradition?

Contending Theories
• Liberalism
• Conservatism
• Theories that talk about political change

Liberalism
• Influencing factors which led to its emergence
• Individual responsibility associated with the Renaissance and the
Reformation which led to the celebration of the individual, intellect and
rationalism of the individual, the capacity of the individual to inquire
• Humanism focusing on the human side
• Scientific investigation
• The beginning of a capitalist economy
• The rise of the middle class
• Primarily concerned with freedom of individuality and rejection of arbitrary
authority (arbitrariness in the exercise of power)

Core Ideas
Freedom and human rationality
• Freedom of thought and expression
• Reduction or elimination of coercion
• Toleration of different points of views though differences exist about the
limits of toleration but there is an agreement that we must tolerate this
diversity
• Limits on the exercise of power through constitutional arrangements or
guarantees of indiv rights
• Discourse of rights that limits the exercise power of the state to the
individuals
• Impersonal rule of law
• Justice is blind, law is impersonal
• The right of people to choose their political and religious views
• Existence of a free opposition to established authority
• People should be able to oppose and speak up against the government
Key Characteristics
• Essentially secular
• Optimistic - view of human nature
• Sees history as a generally progressive development
• Believes in the use of reason and education to solve human problems
• Believes in freedom of opportunity
• Favors peaceful solution to international issues

John Stuart Mill

• Liberal
• Very much preoccupied with the question what powers should society have
over individuals?
• Essential premise: the individual is sovereign over his own body and mind,
we are in control of our body and mind
• The only time one can interfere with the liberty of others is if it is in the
name of self defense or:
• Self protection is the sole end which justifies interfering with the liberty of
others
 • Believed in negative liberty, that freedom/liberty should be the absence of
restraints
• Negative liberty: absence of restraints, seen in the existence of constraints
and you have to get the beyond
• Opposes not only coercion and political tyranny but also tyranny of the
majority and the despotism of custom
• Argues for freedom of thought and expression which enable truth to
emerge from diverse and conflicting points of view
• In the face of diversity and conflicting points of view, what enable truth to
emerge is the freedom of thought and expression - important to have this
freedom, and freely express
• truth will emerge if we allow people to speak
• Failed to define the limits between freedom and government action,
hanggang saan freedom mo
• Became more amenable to government authority
• In the end there has to be some form of government authority
• General liberty is the basis for the relationship between individual and
society
• Liberal = freedom

Early Versus Modern Forms

• Early liberalism
• Belief in laissez fare and the market economy - the removal of restrictions
or control on economic behavior
• Concentrated on negative liberty or freedom from restrictions
• Neoclassical type of liberalism, where market should be free
• More than liberals,
• Modern liberalism
• Accepted the need for state intervention in the economy that when the
economy is collapsing, or unable to help the marginalized when markets are
failing, and no perfect competition and that favors the elites = government
must comes in
• Tend to emphasize the need for opportunities for people to act, pay more
attention on the social environment and on economic political orgs
• Social movements, activism, and pay attention on the social environment
• Social movements = liberal idea, NGOs, political participation
• They do not believe in the laisses fare economy, they believe in politically
strategic state intervention

Conservatism
• Opposite of liberalism
• A response to the french revolution
• Rejects the idea of violent change
• Upholds the need for order and continuity
• Believes that society, institutions and methods of procedure have grown in
organic fashion (they are deeply rooted and therefore; thus, social
institutions and traditions that are well crafted should be respected
• Tend to be pessimistic (which in their views is actually realistic) regarding
human capabilities, political and social change
• They don’t trust the reason of the people and are sus towards change
• Based on a proper recognition of human limitation
• Focuses on human limitation of human beings, flaws

Edmund Burke
• Attacked theories advocating the rights of man, absolute liberty, equality,
democracy, abstract political principles and change by revolution
• emphasized the limitations and flaws of the human beings, the complexity
of man and nature, the wisdom embodied in institutions (state, church,
private property) and in traditions
• Prescription, presumption and prejudice were more valuable basis for
governance than reason
• Prescribe an action, presumption that you have presumed rather than grant
liberty and prejudice that you always have to be sus of people
• You have to be skeptical and order people around, give them instructions,
presume that they are limited
• Society is not a conscious creation of man; men were born subject to
established society
• People are subject to society, constrains of the society, we do not create
society
• The concept of an isolated individual is problematic and meaningless
because the individual is always molded by environment and history
• You cannot be an individual alone in quest for your rights, you have to
always prescribed within your society and history
 • Rationalism and reason were of limited value in understanding political
phenomenon since they neglected passion, prejudice and habit

Events against which conservatives react (19th century)

• Advancement of democratic principles
• Saw it as a threat to elite power
• Extension of political suffrage
• They wanted to limit the voting rights to the privileged people
• Will of the majority increasingly accepted as political wisdom
• They argued that the majority is wrong

Aristocratic Conservatism
• Reacted to the 19th century developments
• Saw the forces of commercialism and of industrialism, the political reforms,
the ideas of egalitarianism that they consider dangerous leading to a
situation wherein power is being placed in the hands of the incompetent
• Led to undesirable outcomes
• Stronger central government
They did not like, it threatens individual freedom and tradition
• Destruction of traditional ways of life
Led to a weakening of the church, and the elites, disoriented the political
system
• Renunciation of traditional sources of authority
• Loss of orientation
• Prevalence of false values (liberalism)

Alexis De Tocqueville
• Context of arguments
• Passion for equality would lead to uniformity and may destroy liberty
Because we want to be equal, but when we want equality, it will lead to
uniformity and therefore will destroy liberty
Uniform - gusto mo mag uniform ang mga tao para di mo makita ang
mayaman at mahirap, but kapag pinantay pantay mo yan, mawawala
naman ang freedom of expression ng mga tao
• When speak a lot, public opinion would form conformity rather than
individuality because when public opinion becomes powerful, people don’t
want to be talked about = public opinion may lead to conformity in the
majority that are vocal, you submit your own individuality you don’t want to
be the odd one out, or speak against public opinion
• The power of public opinion would produce conformity rather than
individuality, mediocry rather than outstanding individuals, and
preoccupation with materialistic rather than spiritual values
• Democracy may lead to centralized government, and may become despotic
and unstable as any type of regime
Too much democracy is bad, may lead to centralization
He is trying to point out the contradictions: equality undermines liberty, you
want to give the people the right to speak but enabling individuality
promotes conformity, instead of enabling excellence it becomes mediocrity,
material things rather than higher discourse such as spirituality
• Argued the need for
• Institutions of local self-governance
• Decentralized administration
• Widespread ownership of private property
• Voluntary associations
3 out of the four, these are the ideas that are prevalent in civil society politics and
participatory governance
Pinaka discourse
Major weapons of the liberals is under the aristocrat conservativism
• These are necessary to
○ Maintain political liberties
○ Obtain stability
○ Guard against the tyranny of the majority and the demands of
authority

Jacob Burckhardt
• Held that mediocrity is the real diabolical force in the world
○ Happens because of the unintelligment masses getting ascendacny in
society
• Civilization had to be protected against the masses gaining ascendancy in
society and uninterested in true liberty
• Examined the interaction of culture, religion and the state by suggesting the
dangers inherent in the growth of state power
• The preservation of culture is most important, for this was the real
expression man
○ Against change
 ○ Against change
○ Critical of populism, granting the people power, when people rise it
could lead to mediocrity, people are petty not rationale, when you
give them power, they will not be able to handle it

Discussion:
Liberalism
• Optimistic view of human beings
• They look at human beings in a positive light
• His/her rights and the freedom he/she should enjoy
• Focuses on rights and limited government

John Stuart Mill

• Opposed tyranny and abuse of power
• Looked at liberty at the context of being free
• Utilitarian
• The government must not intervene in the free market
• The government who governs the least, governs the best
• The best way to deal with change, complexity of the society, is to let reason
and freedom prevail - they believe in the rationality of people
• Classic Liberals - believes that the state should be a minimalist market
• Assumes that market are perfect, but markets fail
• Free market and perfect competition, not all the time = there is monopoly
• When markets fail, there are people who suffer
• Liberalism evolved into a different kind of modernance
• Modern:
the best way to deal with the dynamics is for the state to intervene
market

Conservatism
• Edmund Burke argued that men are not the ones in control of society, we
are subjected to the society
Privileged tradition
• Custom and tradition, they opposed change!
• French Revolution: they saw it as a warning sign, they are making sure that
this does not happen again
• They thought that the idea of giving people power is dangerous
• Emanates from aristocrats, they were threatened because their power is
based on land - but it was shifted to the city, burgis
• Nawalan ng power ang aristocrats
• Their has to be a prescribed action to them, because people are not
rationale
• They have this idea that people are not capable of reason, ordinary people
cannot be trusted with power

Alexis Tocqueville
• He had lots of problem regarding the exercise of democracy, public opinion,
free speech, equality
• Uniforms in school = it groups people, to disregard the classes, pero no
sense of individuality
• Public opinion and freedom of expression: there is an opinion of majority,
that sometimes the minority refuses to go against = bandwagon effect,
leads to conformity
• Democrats wants they should take care of the medical care, republicans
oppose it because it should be a private entity
• Liberal but became the icon for modern conservatism

• Liberals started with the idea that the state should not intervene, but now
the modern liberals says they should to make sure no one is left behind
• Modern day conservatives want less state activity, galit sa taxes
• Margaret Thatcher, conservative