The State that Promises Everything
Dash the nose from Phidias's marble Jove, and what a sorry remainder! Nevertheless, Leviathan is of so mighty a magnitude, all his proportions are so stately, that the same deficiency which in the sculptured Jove were hideous, in him is no blemish at all. Nay, it is an added grandeur. A nose to the whale would have been impertinent.
Justice – The Burden of the Modern State
“What is just?” is obviously one of the most-asked questions in the political history of the world. Its answer is, in principle, impossible. Many of us have often wondered how it is possible for a certain politician or ruler to be so ignorant and incapable of the position he holds. And to embody in such an amazing and incontrovertible way the definition of “remarkably stupid.” People often say that it is not fair for “remarkably stupid” politicians to be elected and to exercise ...
Justice in the Premodern State
Shifting the focus from “Who makes the decision?” to “How is a given decision made?” subjects the process of governing to the power of procedures and, in this way, limits the rulers. This process is carried out through written regulations, without the ruler’s right to decide being called into question. The creation of statutes governing how rulers make decisions has been known since antiquity and has gone through different variations, according to the specificities of the countries ...
Is it Important Who Rules
Unfortunately, the philosophical treatise with the most significant literary value, which became the most influential book in the political history of mankind, is Plato’s The Republic. I say “unfortunately” because The Republic is a masterfully created illusion. It suggests that it is possible to have a wise and good ruler who cares for the welfare of the state and who, through his own judgment, guided by his own ethical criteria, can adjudicate and govern justly. Plato suggests that this ...
From “Who?” to “How?
The question whose answer shaped the pattern of human behavior in all forms of states previous to the republic founded on written a constitution is “Who decides?”. After the first modern republican constitution and the establishment of constitutional monarchies, this question changed to “How is a given decision made?”Even in imitations of republics – the so-called “democratic republics” in the former communist world and its remnants, or those in one-party and theocratic ...
Fear and the State – Controlling the Fear
Fear of the strong, of the one in power, is the longest existing political emotion in human history. This fear is hardwired into our genes. Whole social systems have been built through its institutionalization in regulations. Entire eras of human history have been dominated by it. Every form of slavery is based on this kind of fear. Every form of unlimited power, of subordination and restriction of an individual or group of people, is based on a fear of the ruler and the state.Power is ...
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