Political Thinkers - Niccolo Machiavelli, Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham - Book Report/Review Example

Political Thinkers Niccolo Machiavelli "Niccol di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an Italian philosopher, and politician and is considered one of the main founders of modern political science" (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.). Machiavelli contributed to a large number of important discourses in Western thought-political theory most notably, but also history and historiography, Italian literature, the principles of warfare, and diplomacy (Cary Nederman). Most consider Machiavelli the inventor of modern politics, with his theory of "better to be feared than to be loved" (suite101.com). It was because his views of politics helped shape the politics of modern day that's why he was called the first significant modern political thinkers (suite101.com). It is a common question in the realm of political thought as to what is original and unique about Machiavelli's thoughts. It is realized "that Machiavelli was in a sense trapped between innovation and tradition, between via antiqua and via moderna (to adopt the usage of Janet Coleman 1995), in a way that generated internal conceptual tensions within his thought as a whole and even within individual texts" (Cary Nederman). "Salient features of the distinctively Machiavellian approach to politics should be credited to an incongruity between historical circumstance and intellectual possibility" (Cary Nederman). "Cases have been made for Machiavelli's political morality, his conception of the state, his religious views, and many other features of his work as the distinctive basis for the originality of his contribution" (Cary Nederman). His views were considered a deviation from the Greek political thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle as if his was more of the realist and the Greek philosophers' were of the idealist (Cary Nederman). His work, The Prince discusses how a New Prince would be able to establish his authority and power as opposed to the Hereditary Prince (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.). It is this paper that popularized the saying, "the end justifies the means". With this, he was saying that the Prince can resort to cruel ways if the end will be for the common good. These views are congruent with his assertion that leaders should have regal bearing so as to be feared by the constituents (suite101.com). "Machiavelli believes the ruling Prince should be the sole authority determining every aspect of the state and put in effect a policy to serve his best interests. These interests were gaining, maintaining, and expanding his political power" (azete.com) This book has been so influential among the current politicians especially in maintaining stature and in retaining power. As observed, the modern politicians are of high stature. They are feared and therefore influential. They use their power to retain their position and wealth, but most of the time they deceive the people through empty promises and mediocre works. The modern politicians try to win the hearts of people in many ways except service. They are keen on attracting the love of people, but if it becomes impossible to be feared and to be loved, they are keen on resorting to fear as a means of controlling those under them. The modern politicians have the wisest cabinet members with strategic and well-thought of advice on running the government, but in the end, they are not implemented as it is still the politician who makes the decision about the government. The cruel politician who masks in the benevolent but self-interested servant is what the Prince portrays. Adam Smith In his time, the dominant economic theory was mercantilism, the school of thought which is characterized by political and economic control of the state, wherein economic planner directed all economic activities. It was then Adam Smith was able to theorize what is now known as capitalism. In his Wealth of Nation, Adam Smith introduced the concepts of self-interest, free market or laissez faire and invisible hand. He was considered the Father of Capitalism because it was because of his theories that the market-based economic system was popularized. Smith believed that a society which is composed of individuals who act in the pursuit of their own self interests would inevitably result in a stable, free and more prosperous society than one regimented and planned by the state (Formaini). It is this foundational theory that gave way to a market system with limited government intervention or what we call the laissez faire. Since there is limited intervention on the part of the government, there exists a free market, minimal taxes, minimal regulations and private ownership of property. However, this does not mean zero government intervention because it is believed that the government can sometimes improve market outcomes, especially in managing what we call as the market failures (Mankiw). Examples of these are public goods such as national defense and externalities such as pollution. One of the foundations of the free market is the concept of the Invisible Hand. Adam Smith theorized that there is an Invisible Hand that coordinates economic activities so that the government need not dictate what to produce and how much to produce. In reality, price is the instrument of this Invisible Hand which coordinates supply and demand to achieve market equilibrium (Mankiw). The price dictates the value of the products or service so as the products most valued by the customer will have high demand and therefore will have high price. As with many economic thinkers, Adam Smith's concern was economic growth. For Smith the achievement of the Division of Labor was necessary for growth. "This idea relates primarily to the specialization of the labor force, essentially the breaking down of large jobs into many tiny components" (Dhamee). Smith believed that with the division of labor, specialization is achieved so that efficiency is achieved and that the fact that laborers do not have to shift jobs during the day saves time (Dhamee). It is also congruent to the notion that as the person matures in doing one job, he becomes more and more adept in it so that he can do the job in less time and with less effort, thereby increasing production. This has given rise to assembly line technology as it made it necessary for a worker to focus his or her attention on one small part of the production process. The greatest legacy of Adam Smith on political theory is the well-defined role of the state in running the economy. Contrary to the dominant practice during his time, Smith proposed that the state be focused on the things that the market cannot do on its own, the market failures. In terms of public policies, Smith has revolutionized the way of government in approaching economic problems, even to the point of not doing anything and believing that the market has self-correcting mechanisms thus it reaches solution on its own. The market failures such as public goods, externalities, incomplete markets, incomplete information and imperfect competition should be the concern of the government in running the economy. Jeremy Bentham Jeremy Bentham is an English philosopher and social reformer. He is strongly tied with the concepts of happiness and utility as he has defined these words in new terms. He is the man associated with utilitarianism which is a moral theory saying that "an action is right if and only if it conforms to the principle of utility" (Mautner). Utility is then defined as ""that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness...or...to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness" (Bentham). Happiness was identified with pleasure and the absence of pain (Mautner). In his attempt to compute the intensity, duration, likelihood, extent and other things about pain and pleasure, he came up with the "felicific (happiness-making) calculus" and this is polarly known as the hedonic calculus. It is defined as "the method of working out the sum total of pleasure and pain produced by an act, and thus the total value of its consequences" (Mautner). To use this mathematics, it is necessary that "When determining what action is right in a given situation, we should consider the pleasures and pains resulting from it, in respect of their intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity (the chance that a pleasure is followed by other ones, a pain by further pains), purity (the chance that pleasure is followed by pains and vice versa), and extent (the number of persons affected)" (Mautner). John Stuart Mill continued the doctrines of Utilitarianism as influenced by Jeremy Bentham, and his father James Mill. It is believed however, that his concept of utilitarianism is so different from that of Bentham. Mill has had a deviation from Bentham's utilitarianism as he proposed that not all happiness are equal so that moral and intellectual pleasures are deemed superior to more physical forms of pleasure (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc). It is this qualitative separation of pleasure that gave way to his book, On Liberty, suggesting that "utility should be conceived in relation to mankind as a progressive being" (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.) . Marx and Engels Marx and Engels predict that the capitalist society will soon disappear as class struggles heighten and lead to revolution. "Marx saw the productive process as one of the workers creating commodities, largely for the property owners", however the working class were coerced by the necessity of survival into working for the property owners, and their labor was controlled by the property owners. It is believed that the modern industrial society is being characterized by a class conflict: between the bourgeoisies who owns that factors of production, mainly the capital and the proletariat who are mainly composed of the workers (SparkNotes LLC). With this exploitative relationship, the proletariats are bound to rise in an upheaval leading to the disappearance of the class system (SparkNotes LLC). Marx and Engels believe that the peasants are a necessary force in the revolution and that it is their taste of oppression that will push them to do so. This is observed in the Russian Revolution. "The social causes of the Russian Revolution mainly came from centuries of oppression of the lower classes by the Tsarist regime" since "while rural agrarian peasants had been emancipated from serfdom in 1861, they still resented paying redemption payments to the state, and demanded communal tender of the land they worked" (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.). The rapid industrialization in the country has also resulted to the new proletariat as it has resulted to urban overcrowding and poor condition for industrial urban workers (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,). The poor condition aggravated the situation so that strikes public disorder increased during those times (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,). Similarly, the abuse of labor in factory due to the necessity of war supplies caused many riots and strikes (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,). This condition has lead to mass revolts coming from the proletariats. The current wave of industrialization and the success of market economies make one ask about the relevancy of Marxist theory in the recent years. One of the limitations of Marx's communism is the lesser incentive for the people to improve because of the absence of property rights. The government alone cannot induce and reward to people enough to innovate and invent. Similarly, having an economy solely controlled by the government gives way to oppression and dictatorship. In real world, there is a presence of the middle class, practically between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. This strong middle class wants to maintain the order and this is apparently what prevents revolution. This is something that the Marxist theory did not foresee. Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchad Gandhi was both a political and spiritual leader in India at the time of colonization of Britain. He founded the Indian Independence Movement which aimed to practice satyagraha which is a resistance to tyranny through civil disobedience (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.). "His doctrine of non-violent protest to achieve political and social progress has been hugely influential" (BBC ). The most notable contribution of Gandhi is his belief in non-violence as he was the first to apply this practice in the political field and in huge scale (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,). In his search for the truth, Gandhi found out that love always won and that there is no murderer or tyrants who continued to exist, in the end, they fell (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,) "The term passive resistance is a form of non-cooperation that is sometimes used imprecisely as a synonym for nonviolent resistance. It means resistance by inertia or refusal to comply, as opposed to resistance by active means such as protest or risking arrest" (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.). Gandhi has particularly pioneered the satyagraha in India to resist the rule of the British government although he has also done this in his early struggles in Africa (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.). Gandhi did not only intend to use satyagraha to liberate his country from the British rule but he envisioned all nations to commit to such a way of resolving conflicts. The difference between satyagraha and ordinary war is that it aims to convert the enemy instead of subduing them (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.). It is coupled then by any principles, such as: 1. Nonviolence (ahimsa) 2. Truth - this includes honesty, but goes beyond it to mean living fully in accord with and in devotion to that which is true 3. Non-stealing 4. Chastity (brahmacharya) - this includes sexual chastity, but also the subordination of other sensual desires to the primary devotion to truth 5. Non-possession (not the same as poverty) 6. Body-labor or bread-labor 7. Control of the palate 8. Fearlessness 9. Equal respect for all religions 10. Economic strategy such as boycotts (swadeshi) 11. Freedom from untouchability Source: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc It is believed that Mohandas Gandhi has been in search for truth all his life so that he was able to make a book about it, The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Works Cited azete.com. http://www.azete.com. 13 May 2009 . BBC . http://www.bbc.co.uk. 13 May 2009 . Bentham, Jeremy. Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Kessinger Publishing, 2005. Cary Nederman. http://plato.stanford.edu. 13 September 2005. 13 May 2009 . Dhamee, Yousuf. http://www.victorianweb.org. 1995. 13 May 2009 . Formaini, Robert L. "Adam Smith-Capitalism's Prophet." Economic Insights 7 (2002). Mankiw, N.Gregory. Principles of Macroeconomics. Orlando, Florida: The Dryden Press Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998. Mautner, Thomas. http://www.utilitarianism.com. 13 May 2009 . SparkNotes LLC. http://www.sparknotes.com. 13 May 2009 . suite101.com. http://weuropeanhistory.suite101.com. 13 May 2009 . Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. http://en.wikipedia.org. 12 May 2009. 13 May 2009 . -. http://en.wikipedia.org. 12 May 2009. 13 May 2009 . Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,. http://en.wikipedia.org. 12 May 2009. 13 May 2009 . -. http://en.wikipedia.org. 13 May 2009. 13 May 2009 . Read More