Principles of Politics Applicable to All Governments

by Constant, Benjamin

• ISBN13: 9780865973961
• ISBN10: 0865973962
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: Liberty Fund

Summary

Benjamin Constant (1767-1830) was born in Switzerland and became one of France's leading writers, as well as a journalist, philosopher, and politician. His colourful life included a formative stay at the University of Edinburgh; service at the court of Brunswick, Germany; election to the French Tribunate; and initial opposition and subsequent support for Napoleon, even the drafting of a constitution for the Hundred Days. Constant wrote many books, essays, and pamphlets. His deepest conviction was that reform is hugely superior to revolution, both morally and politically. While Constant's fluid, dynamic style and lofty eloquence do not always make for easy reading, his text forms a coherent whole, and in his translation Dennis O'Keeffe has focused on retaining the 'general elegance and subtle rhetoric' of the original. Sir Isaiah Berlin called Constant 'the most eloquent of all defenders of freedom and privacy' and believed to him we owe the notion of 'negative liberty', that is, what Biancamaria Fontana describes as "the protection of individual experience and choices from external interferences and constraints." To Constant it was relatively unimportant whether liberty was ultimately grounded in religion or metaphysics -- what mattered were the practical guarantees of practical freedom -- "autonomy in all those aspects of life that could cause no harm to others or to society as a whole." This translation is based on Etienne Hofmann's critical edition of Principes de politique (1980), complete with Constant's additions to the original work.

Table of Contents

Translator's Note	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
Introduction	xvii
PRINCIPLES OF POLITICS APPLICABLE TO ALL GOVERNMENTS
BOOK I. On Received Ideas About the Scope of Political Authority	1	(28)
1. The purpose of this work.	3	(3)
2. Rousseau's first principle on the origin of political authority.	6	(2)
3. Rousseau's second principle on the scope of political authority.	8	(7)
4. Rousseau's arguments for boundless political authority.	15	(2)
5. That Rousseau's error comes from his wanting to distinguish the prerogatives of society from those of the government.	17	(2)
6. The consequences of Rousseau's theory.	19	(2)
7. On Hobbes.	21	(2)
8. Hobbes's opinion reproduced.	23	(1)
9. On the inconsistency with which Rousseau has been reproached.	24	(5)
BOOK II. On the Principles to Replace Received Ideas on the Extent of Political Authority	29	(16)
1. On the limitation of political authority.	31	(1)
2. On the rights of the majority.	32	(3)
3. On the organization of government when political power is not limited.	35	(1)
4. Objection to the possibility of limiting political authority.	36	(2)
5. On the limits of political authority restricted to a minimum.	38	(1)
6. On individual rights when political authority is thus restricted.	39	(1)
7. On the principle of utility substituted for the idea of individual rights.	39	(6)
BOOK III. On Arguments and Hypotheses in Favor of the Extension of Political Authority	45	(16)
1. On the extension of political authority beyond its necessary minimum, on the grounds of utility.	47	(2)
2. On the hypotheses without which extension of political authority is illegitimate.	49	(1)
3. Are governors necessarily less liable to error than the governed?	50	(5)
4. Are governmental mistakes less dangerous than those of individuals?	55	(2)
5. On the nature of the means political authority can use on the grounds of utility.	57	(4)
BOOK IV. On the Proliferation of the Lazes	61	(10)
1. Natural causes of the proliferation of the laws.	63	(1)
2. The idea which usually develops about the effects which the proliferation of the laws has and the falsity of that idea.	63	(2)
3. That the principal benefit which supporters of democratic government are looking for in the proliferation of the laws does not exist.	65	(1)
4. On the corruption which the proliferation of the laws causes among the agents of the government.	66	(1)
5. Another drawback of the proliferation of the laws.	67	(4)
BOOK V. On Arbitrary Measures	71	(12)
1. On arbitrary measures and why people have always protested less about them than about attacks on property.	73	(1)
2. On the grounds for arbitrary measures and the prerogative of preventing crimes.	74	(3)
3. Specious argument in support of arbitrary government.	77	(1)
4. On the effect of arbitrary measures in terms of moral life, industry, and the duration of governments.	78	(2)
5. On the influence of arbitrary rule on the governors themselves.	80	(3)
BOOK VI. On Coups d'Etat	83	(18)
1. On the admiration for coups d'Etat.	85	(4)
2. On coups d'Etat in countries with written constitutions.	89	(4)
3. The condition necessary to stop constitutional violations.	93	(8)
BOOK VII. On Freedom of Thought	101	(28)
1. The object of the following three books.	103	(1)
2. On freedom of thought.	103	(2)
3. On the expression of thought.	105	(7)
4. Continuation of the same subject.	112	(5)
5. Continuation of the same subject.	117	(6)
6. Some necessary explication.	123	(1)
7. Final observations.	124	(5)
BOOK VIII. On Religious Freedom	129	(20)
1. Why religion was so often attacked by the men of the Enlightenment.	131	(4)
2. On civil intolerance.	135	(2)
3. On the proliferation of sects.	137	(2)
4. On the maintenance of religion by government against the spirit of inquiry.	139	(1)
5. On the reestablishment of religion by government.	140	(1)
6. On the axiom that the people must have a religion.	141	(1)
7. On the utilitarian case for religion.	142	(1)
8. Another effect of the axiom that the people must have a religion.	143	(1)
9. On tolerance when government gets involved.	144	(1)
10. On the persecution of a religious belief.	144	(5)
BOOK IX. On Legal Safeguards	149	(14)
1. On the independence of the courts.	151	(2)
2. On the abridgment of due process.	153	(4)
3. On punishments.	157	(3)
4. On the prerogative of exercising mercy.	160	(3)
BOOK X. On the Action of Government with Regard to Property	163	(40)
1. The purpose of this book.	165	(1)
2. The natural division of the inhabitants of the same territory into two classes.	165	(2)
3. On property.	167	(1)
4. On the status property should occupy in political institutions.	168	(3)
5. On examples drawn from antiquity.	171	(2)
6. On the proprietorial spirit.	173	(1)
7. That territorial property alone brings together all the advantages of property.	174	(5)
8. On property in public funds.	179	(3)
9. On the amount of landed property which society has the right to insist upon for the exercise of political rights.	182	(1)
10. That owners have no interest in abusing power vis-à-vis nonowners.	183	(2)
11. On hereditary privileges compared to property.	185	(1)
12. Necessary comment.	186	(4)
13. On the best way of giving proprietors a large political influence.	190	(2)
14. On the action of government on property.	192	(1)
15. On laws which favor the accumulation of property in the same hands.	193	(3)
16. On laws which enforce the wider spreading of property.	196	(7)
BOOK XI. On Taxation	203	(22)
1. The object of this book.	205	(1)
2. The first right of the governed with regard to taxation.	205	(2)
3. The second right of the governed with regard to taxation.	207	(1)
4. On various types of taxes.	207	(5)
5. How taxation becomes contrary to individual rights.	212	(2)
6. That taxes bearing on capital are contrary to individual rights.	214	(1)
7. That the interest of the state in matters of taxation is consistent with individual rights.	215	(4)
8. An incontestable axiom.	219	(1)
9. The drawback of excessive taxation.	220	(1)
10. A further drawback of excessive taxation.	221	(4)
BOOK XII. On government jurisdiction oper economic activity and population	225	(50)
1. Preliminary observation.	227	(1)
2. On legitimate political jurisdiction vis-à-vis economic activity.	228	(1)
3. That there are two branches of government intervention with regard to economic activity.	228	(1)
4. On privileges and prohibitions.	229	(18)
5. On the general effect of prohibitions.	247	(1)
6. On things which push governments in this mistaken direction.	248	(3)
7. On the supports offered by government.	251	(4)
8. On the equilibrium of production.	255	(3)
9. A final example of the adverse effects of government intervention.	258	(1)
10. Conclusions from the above reflections.	259	(1)
11. On government measures in relation to population.	260	(15)
BOOK XIII. On War	275	(20)
1. From what point of view war can be considered as having advantages.	277	(2)
2. On the pretexts for war.	279	(3)
3. The effect of the politics of war on the domestic condition of nations.	282	(4)
4. On safeguards against the war mania of governments.	286	(3)
5. On the mode of forming and maintaining armies.	289	(6)
BOOK XIV. On Government Action on Enlightenment	295	(24)
1. Questions to be dealt with in this book.	297	(1)
2. On the value attributed to errors.	298	(3)
3. On government in support of truth.	301	(3)
4. On government protection of enlightenment.	304	(3)
5. On the upholding of morality.	307	(1)
6. On the contribution of government to education.	308	(7)
7. On government duties vis-à-vis enlightenment.	315	(4)
BOOK XV. The Outcome of Preceding Discussion Relative to the Action of Government	319	(30)
1. The outcome of the preceding discussion.	321	(1)
2. On three pernicious ideas.	322	(1)
3. On ideas of uniformity.	322	(4)
4. Application of this principle to the composition of representative assemblies.	326	(2)
5. Further thoughts on the preceding chapter.	328	(10)
6. On ideas of stability.	338	(2)
7. On premature ameliorations.	340	(5)
8. On a false way of reasoning.	345	(4)
BOOK XVI. On Political Authority in the Ancient World	349	(32)
1. Why among the ancients political authority could be more extensive than in modern times.	351	(1)
2. The first difference between the social State of the ancients and that of modern times.	352	(1)
3. The second difference.	353	(2)
4. The third difference.	355	(3)
5. The fourth difference.	358	(1)
6. The fifth difference.	359	(2)
7. The result of these differences between the ancients and the moderns.	361	(4)
8. Modern imitators of the republics of antiquity.	365	(16)
BOOK XVII. On the The Principles of Freedom	381	(14)
1. On the inviolability of the true principles of freedom.	383	(2)
2. That the circumscription of political authority, within its precise limits, does not tend at all to weaken the necessary action of the government.	385	(1)
3. Final thoughts on civil freedom and political freedom.	386	(6)
4. Apologia for despotism by Louis XIV.	392	(3)
BOOK XVIII. On the Duties of Individuals to Political Authority	395	(30)
1. Difficulties with regard to the question of resistance.	397	(1)
2. On obedience to the law.	398	(7)
3. On revolutions.	405	(2)
4. On the duties of enlightened men during revolutions.	407	(6)
5. Continuation of the same subject.	413	(6)
6. On the duties of enlightened men after violent revolutions.	419	(6)
Additions to the Work Entitled Principles of Politics Applicable to All Governments	425	(110)
Index	535