|
|
This is only a preview of the paper
Click here to register and get the full text.
Existing members click here to login
|
|
|
John Locke and Niccoló Machiavelli are political philosophers writing in two different lands and two different times. Locke’s 17th century England was on the verge of civil war and Machiavelli’s 15th century Italy was on the verge of invasion. ... The focus of this discourse is to examine the treatment of “the people” by both authors, to discover what Machiavelli and Locke write about the people’s role in their different structures of government. ... In addition, these treatments of power and the people will be compared to the writings of another timeless political philosopher, Plato. ... Machiavelli, the most pessimistic of the three writers in regards to humans and human nature, writes that all men can be accused of “that defect” which Livy calls vanity and inconsistency (The Discourses on Livy, 115). ... Machiavelli writes that these men lack understanding of “public defense or public offense,” and quickly return “beneath the yoke that is most often heavier than the one it had removed from its neck a little before” (Discourses on Livy, 44). ... With Plato, there is a continuation of the same theme started by Machiavelli. The people primarily play a subservient role in Plato’s structure of government under the rule of monarchs, aristocrats, or philosopher-kings. When discussing with Adeimantus the virtue and reason behind a regime instituted by philosophers, Plato does not paint a picture of men much greater than Machiavelli’s animalistic comparison above. ... For Plato, the largest majority of men constitute unknowledgeable masses that persecute the very group that can best lead them, the philosophers. Even in a democratic regime, a regime based on the will of the people, Plato does not give us a particularly optimistic view of men. This regime is composed of three types of men according to Plato; the multitude; the oligarchic; and the “men most orderly by nature” (The Republic, 243). ... Thus, Machiavelli sees the people as subjugated and Plato sees the people as fatuous, both doomed to political ineptitude. With Locke, however, the character of the people is redeemed. The people, for Locke, represent a political power akin to force. Indeed, the people are the ultimate source of power for Locke’s government, whether that government is a legislative body or a prince. In the closing chapter of his second treatise, Locke details the ways that government can dissipate when rulers misuse their power.
Approximate Word count = 1909
Approximate Pages = 7.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
|
|
|
|
|
|