[Andrew Heywood] Political Theory, Third Edition (BookFi.org) PDF

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POLITICAL THEORY Also by Andrew Heywood POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES: An Introduction POLITICS KEY CONCEPTS IN POLITICS Political Theory An Introduction Third Edition Andrew Heywood # Andrew Heywood 1994, 1999, 2004 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made ...

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POLITICAL THEORY

Also by Andrew Heywood POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES: An Introduction POLITICS KEY CONCEPTS IN POLITICS

Political Theory An Introduction

Third Edition

Andrew Heywood

# Andrew Heywood 1994, 1999, 2004 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First edition published 1994 under the title Political Ideas and Concepts: An Introduction Reprinted five times Second edition published 1999 Third edition published 2004 Published by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 0–333–96179–X hardback ISBN 0–333–96180–3 paperback A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 13

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Printed and bound in China

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For Kate, Roger, Elsie and Stan

. . . the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. George Orwell, ‘Politics and the English Language’

If one listens one may be convinced; and a man who allows himself to be convinced by an argument is a thoroughly unreasonable person. Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean. Neither more or less.’ ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘who is the master. That is all.’ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Contents List of Boxes

xii

Preface to the third edition

xv

1 Introduction: Concepts and Theories in Politics

1

Language and politics Understanding political concepts What is political theory? Political theory in the twenty-first century Summary Further reading

2 3 6 11 14 14

2 Human Nature, the Individual and Society

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Human nature Nature versus nurture Intellect versus instinct Competition versus cooperation The individual Individualism Individual and community The individual in politics Society Collectivism Theories of society Social cleavages and identity Summary Further reading

16 17 20 23 26 27 32 37 40 41 43 45 50 50

3 Politics, Government and the State

51

Politics The art of government Public affairs Power and resources Government Why have government? Governments and governance Political systems

52 52 55 59 65 66 68 73

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viii Contents The state Government and the state Theories of state Role of the state Summary Further reading

4 Sovereignty, the Nation and Supranationalism Sovereignty Legal and political sovereignty Internal sovereignty External sovereignty The nation Cultural and political nations Nationalism and cosmopolitanism Nation-states and globalization Supranationalism Intergovernmentalism Federalism and federations Prospects of world government Summary Further reading

75 75 78 85 88 88

89 90 90 92 95 97 98 101 106 109 110 113 116 119 120

5 Power, Authority and Legitimacy

121

Power Decision-making Agenda-setting Thought control Authority Power and authority Kinds of authority Defenders and detractors Legitimacy Constitutionalism and consent Ideological hegemony Legitimation crises Summary Further reading

122 123 125 127 129 131 133 136 141 143 145 147 150 151

Contents ix 6 Law, Order and Justice Law The rule of law Natural and positive law Law and liberty Order Discipline and control Natural harmony Justifying punishment Justice Procedural justice Substantive justice Justifying law-breaking? Summary Further reading

7 Rights, Obligations and Citizenship Rights Legal and moral rights Human rights Animal and other rights? Obligations Contractual obligations Natural duty Limits of political obligation Citizenship Elements of citizenship Social or active citizenship? Universal citizenship and diversity Summary Further reading

8 Democracy, Representation and the Public Interest Democracy Direct and indirect democracy Liberal democracy Virtues and vices of democracy

152 153 153 156 159 162 163 167 169 173 174 176 178 183 183

184 185 185 188 191 196 198 200 202 204 204 209 213 218 219

220 221 221 225 229

x Contents Representation Representatives or delegates? Elections and mandates Characteristic representation The public interest Private and public interests Is there a public interest? Dilemmas of democracy Summary Further reading 9 Freedom, Toleration and Liberation Freedom Liberty and licence Negative freedom Positive freedom Toleration Toleration and difference The case for toleration Limits of toleration Liberation National liberation Sexual liberation Politics of liberation Summary Further reading 10 Equality, Social Justice and Welfare Equality Formal equality Equality of opportunity Equality of outcome Social justice According to needs According to rights According to deserts Welfare Welfare, poverty and social exclusion In praise of welfare Welfare: roll-back or reform? Summary Further reading

232 233 235 237 240 240 243 245 251 251 252 253 254 258 260 264 264 267 269 272 273 275 278 282 283 284 285 285 289 291 294 295 298 300 303 304 306 312 315 315

Contents xi 11 Property, Planning and the Market

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Property Private property Common property State property Planning The planning process Promise of planning Perils of planning The market The market mechanism Miracle of the market Market failures Summary Further reading

317 317 321 323 324 325 327 330 332 333 335 340 343 344

12 Tradition, Progress and Utopia

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Tradition Defending the status quo Reclaiming the past Change in order to conserve Progress The forward march of history Progress through reform Progress through revolution Utopia Features of utopianism Political utopias End of utopia? Summary Further reading

346 346 349 351 353 354 355 361 364 364 368 370 374 375

Bibliography

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Index

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List of Boxes Thinkers Aquinas, Thomas Arendt, Hannah Aristotle St Augustine of Hippo Berlin, Isaiah Burke, Edmund Foucault, Michel Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hobbes, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Kant, Immanuel Kropotkin, Peter Locke, John Machiavelli, Niccolo` Madison, James Marx, Karl Mill, John Stuart Nietzsche, Friedrich Nozick, Robert Plato Rawls, John Rousseau, Jean-Jacques Wollstonecroft, Mary

158 58 69 91 261 348 129 180 59 123 189 117 26 268 54 232 371 256 37 318 21 298 242 288

Traditions and key figures Absolutism Anticolonialism/postcolonialism Communitarianism Conservatism Critical theory Democracy Ecologism Feminism

164 102 35 138 279 222 193 62 xii

List of Boxes xiii Liberalism Libertarianism Marxism Multiculturalism Postmodernism Rational choice theory Republicanism Social democracy Utilitarianism Utopianism

29 337 82 215 7 246 205 308 358 366

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Preface to the Third Edition This book was designed, first, as a general introduction to politics through the analysis of political ideas and their relationship to political practice, second, as a guide to the major concepts encountered in political analysis, and third, as a primer in political theory. This new edition aims in particular to enhance its suitability for the third purpose by taking account of modern developments in political theory and the shifting significance of the rival schools of political thought. The basic structure and general coverage of the book remain largely unchanged. The concepts discussed have been chosen because of the central role they play in political analysis. They have been grouped into sets of three interrelated terms to enable each chapter to deal with a distinctive theme, the nature of which is outlined in the introductory section. Apart from general updating, the major changes in the third edition are as follows. Greater attention is generally paid to the issues of identity and difference, especially linked to the increasing cultural and ethical pluralism of modern society. While Marx and Marxism are considered to be of enduring significance, the detailed coverage of Marxist political theory has been reduced to reflect the collapse or transformation of ‘actually existing’ Marxism. Chapter 1 has been revised to extend the discussion of political theory and consider some of the problems and challenges the discipline confronts in the twenty-first century. Elsewhere, account is taken of new issues in political theory such as governance (Chapter 3), globalization (Chapter 4) and the implications of the politics of difference (Chapter 9). Chapter 7 now addresses the issue of differentiated citizenship and examines multiculturalism as a tradition of political thought. Chapter 12 has been significantly restructured to focus more effectively on the issue of political change by considering the rival ideas of tradition, progress and utopia. Additional ‘thinker’ boxes provide a fuller coverage of key figures in political thought, and the ‘schools of political theory’ boxes have been updated and expanded. Books discussed in the text (but not those referred to in the boxes) appear with their date of current publication, as listed in the bibliography, and, where helpful, also with their date of first publication. I would like to express my very warm gratitude to Andrew Gamble and Peter Jones, who each read a draft of the first edition and made extensive comments. Their advice and criticism was both constructive and insightful, and undoubtedly improved the book, deepening and sharpening discussion at a number of points. My publisher, Steven Kennedy, has, as before, been xv

xvi Preface to the Third Edition a constant source of enthusiasm, encouragement and support. The most important person, however, has been my wife Jean. She was closely involved at every stage in the production of the book, taking sole responsibility for the preparation of the typescript and casting an editorial eye over the output. Finally, my sons, Mark and Robin, deserve a mention for allowing me to substitute publication for parenting, and for keeping me supplied with coffee in the process. ANDREW HEYWOOD

The George Orwell excerpt opposite the Contents page is from ‘Politics and the English Language’ by George Orwell, copyright 1946 by Sonia Brownell Orwell and renewed 1974 by Sonia Orwell, reprinted from his volume Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays by permission of Harcourt Brace & Company, the estate of the late Sonia Brownell Orwell and Martin Secker & Warburg.

Chapter 1

Introduction: Concepts and Theories in Politics Introduction Language and politics Understanding political concepts What is political theory? Political theory in the twenty-first century Summary Further reading

Introduction It would be misleading, indeed patently foolish, to suggest that political conflict reflects nothing more than confusion in the use of language. It is certainly true that enemies often argue, fight and even go to war, both claiming to be ‘defending liberty’, ‘upholding democracy’or that ‘justice is on our side’.The intervention of some Great Lexicographer descending from the skies to demand that the parties to the dispute define their terms before they proceed, stating precisely what each means by ‘liberty’, ‘democracy’and ‘justice’, would surely be to no avail.The argument, fight or war would take place anyway. Politics, in other words, can never be reduced to mere semantics. And yet there is also a sense in which sloppiness in the use of language helps to protect ignorance and preserve misunderstanding. Language is both a tool with which we think and a means by which we communicate with others. If the language we use is confused or poorly understood, it is not only difficult to express our views and opinions with any degree of accuracy but it is also impossible to know the contents of our own minds.This book sets out to clarify and examine the major concepts and theories used in political analysis and, in so doing, to provide an introduction to some of the most recurrent controversies in political thought.This introduction attempts to explain why this task is so difficult. Can a neutral and scientific vocabulary ever be devised for politics, and, if not, where does this leave us? Why are political concepts so often the subject of intellectual and ideological controversy? How have recent developments in political theory cast doubt on the very idea of objective truth?

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2 Political Theory

Language and politics Whatever else politics might be it is a social activity. It is therefore conducted through the medium of language, whether written in books, pamphlets and manifestos, daubed on placards and walls, or spoken in meetings, shouted at rallies or chanted on demonstrations and marches. At first sight, language is a simple thing: it is a system of expression which employs symbols, in this case words, to represent things, which can include physical objects, feelings, ideas and so forth. This implies that language is essentially passive, its role being to reflect reality as accurately as possible, rather as a mirror reflects the image before it. However, language is also a positive and active force, capable of firing the imagination and stirring the emotions. Words do not merely reflect the realities around us, they also help to shape what we see and structure our attitude towards it. In effect, language helps to create the world itself. This problem is particularly acute in politics because language is so often wielded by those who have an incentive to manipulate and confuse – professional politicians. Being primarily interested in political advocacy, politicians are typically less concerned with the precision of their language than they are with its propaganda value. Language is therefore not simply a means of communication, it is a political weapon; it is shaped and honed to convey political intent. States justify their own ‘nuclear deterrent’ but condemn other states for possessing ‘weapons of mass destruction’. The invasion of a foreign country can be described either as a ‘violation’ of its sovereignty or as the ‘liberation’ of its people. Similarly, civilian casualties of war can be dismissed as ‘collateral damage’, and genocide can appear almost excusable when it is referred to as ‘ethnic cleansing’. The language used by politicians sometimes threatens to turn euphemism into an art form, at times approaching the bizarre extremes of ‘Newspeak’, the language of the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s Nineteen EightyFour, which declares that War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength. Particular controversy has been raised since the late twentieth century by the movement to insist upon ‘political correctness’ in the use of language, often referred to simply as PC. Under pressure from feminist and civil rights movements, attempts have been made to purge language of racist, sexist and other derogatory or disparaging implications. According to this view, language invariably reflects the power structure in society at large, and so discriminates in favour of dominant groups and against subordinate ones. Obvious examples of this are the use of ‘Man’ or ‘mankind’ to refer to the human race, references to ethnic minorities as ‘negroes’ or ‘coloureds’, and the description of third world states as ‘underdeveloped’. The goal of ‘political correctness’ is to develop bias-free terminology that

Introduction: Concepts and Theories in Politics 3 enables political argument to be conducted in non-discriminatory language, thereby countering deeply rooted prejudices and presuppositions. The difficulty with such a position is, however, that the hope of an unbiased and objective language of political discourse may be illusory. At best, ‘negative’ terms and images can be replaced by ‘positive’ ones; for example, the ‘disabled’ can be referred to as the ‘differently abled’, and states can be described as ‘developing’ rather than as ‘underdeveloped’ (although even this implies that they lag behind ‘developed’ countries). Critics of ‘political correctness’ furthermore argue that it imposes an ideological straitjacket upon language that both impoverishes its descriptive power and introduces a form of censorship by denying expression to ‘incorrect’ views. If the attempt to devise a neutral and scientific vocabulary for politics is hopeless, where does this leave us? The least, and possibly the most, we can do is be clear about the words we use and the meanings we assign to them. The goal is the one George Orwell outlined in his seminal essay ‘Politics and the English Language’ (1957): language should be ‘an instrument for expressing and not for concealing or preventing thought’. When a stupid remark is uttered its stupidity should be obvious, even to the speaker. However, this requires more than just a series of definitions. A definition ties a word down to a precise meaning, something that is difficult to do with political terms because they stand for ideas, concepts and values which are themselves highly complex and often fiercely contested. Moreover, most political terms carry heavy ideological baggage, a set of assumptions and beliefs which serve to influence how the words are used and what meanings are assigned to them. Finally, there is the danger of forgetting what Samuel Johnson warned: ‘that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven’. In other words, language always has a limited value. However carefully words are used and however rigorously their meanings are refined, language tends to simplify and misrepresent the infinite complexity of the real world. If we mistake the ‘word’ for the ‘thing’ we are in danger, as the Zen saying puts it, of mistaking the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself.

Understanding political concepts This book examines political theory by exploring the use and significance of key political concepts, clustered into related groups. However, concepts are often slippery customers, and this is particularly the case in relation to political concepts. In its simplest sense, a concept is a general idea about something, usually expressed in a single word or a short phrase. A concept is more than a proper noun or the name of a thing. There is, for example, a

4 Political Theory difference between talking about a cat (a particular and unique cat) and having a general concept of a ‘cat’. The concept of a cat is not a ‘thing’ but an ‘idea’, an idea composed of the various attributes that give a...