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David Miller

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

A Very Short Introduction

Preface

I wanted this book to make political philosophy engaging and accessible to people who had never encountered it before, and so I have tried hard to write as simply as possible without sacrificing accuracy. Explaining some fairly abstract ideas without lapsing into the technical jargon that deadens so much academic writing today proved to be an interesting challenge. I am extremely grateful to friends from different walks of life who agreed to read the first draft of the manuscript, and along with general encouragement made many helpful suggestions: Graham Anderson, George Brown, Sue Miller, Elaine Poole, and Adam Swift, as well as two readers from Oxford University Press. I should also like to thank Zofia Stemplowska for invaluable help in preparing the final manuscript.

List of illustrations

1 The virtuous ruler from The Allegory of Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti

Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. Photo © Archivio Iconografico S.A./Corbis

2 Plato and Socrates, frontispiece by Matthew Paris (d. 1259) for The Prognostics of Socrates the King.

The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, shelfmark MS. Ashm, 304, fol. 31v

3 Thomas Hobbes, defender of political authority

4 How anarchists see political authority: Russian cartoon 1900

5 The Goddess of Democracy facing a portrait of Mao in Tiananmen Square, Beijing

6 One way to invigorate democracy: politicians beware!

Cartoon by David Low, 5 September 1933 © Evening Standard/Centre for the Study of Cartoons & Caricature, University of Kent, Canterbury

7 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosopher of democracy

Musée Antoine Lecuyer, Saint-Quentin, France. Photo © Bettmann/Corbis

8 A controversial view of liberty, 1950

Cartoon by David Low, 15 February 1950 © Daily Herald/Centre for the Study of Cartoons & Caricature, University of Kent, Canterbury

9 Isaiah Berlin, the most widely read philosopher of liberty in the 20th century

Photo by Douglas Glass © J. C. C. Glass

10 John Stuart Mill, utilitarian, feminist, and defender of liberty

11 Justice from The Allegory of Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti

Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. Photo © Archivio Iconografico S.A./Corbis

12 John Rawls, author of the hugely influential A Theory of Justice

Private collection

13 The price of women’s liberation: the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst arrested outside Buckingham Palace, 1914

14 Muslims burn The Satanic Verses in Bradford, UK, 1989

15 Multicultural harmony: the Notting Hill Carnival, 1980

16 Canadians rally for national unity against Quebec separatism, Montreal 1995

17 Resisting globalization, US-style: Latvia 1996

18 Universal human rights: actors Julie Christie and Cy Grant marking UN Human Rights Day

The publisher and the author apologize for any errors or omissions in the above list. If contacted they will be pleased to rectify these at the earliest opportunity.

Chapter 1

Why do we need political philosophy?

This is a small book about a big subject, and since a picture is proverbially worth a thousand words I want to begin it by talking about a very large picture that can help us to see what political philosophy is all about. The picture in question was painted between 1337 and 1339 by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and it covers three walls of the Sala dei Nove in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena. It is usually called the Allegory of Good and Bad Government, and what Lorenzetti’s frescos do is first of all to depict the nature of good and bad government respectively by means of figures who represent the qualities that rulers ought and ought not to have, and then to show the effects of the two kinds of government on the lives of ordinary people. So in the case of good government we see the dignified ruler dressed in rich robes and sitting on his throne, surrounded by figures representing the virtues of Courage, Justice, Magnanimity, Peace, Prudence, and Temperance. Beneath him stand a line of citizens encircled by a long rope the ends of which are tied to the ruler’s wrist, symbolizing the harmonious binding together of ruler and people. As we turn to the right we see Lorenzetti’s portrayal of the effects of good government first in the city and then in the countryside. The city is ordered and wealthy: we see artisans plying their trades, merchants buying and selling goods, nobles riding gaily decorated horses; in one place a group of dancers join hands in a circle. Beyond the city gate a well-dressed lady rides out to hunt, passing on the way a plump saddleback pig being driven in to market; in the countryside itself peasants till the earth and gather in the harvest. In case any careless viewer should fail to grasp the fresco’s message, it is spelt out in a banner held aloft by a winged figure representing Security:

Without fear every man may travel freely and each may till and sow, so long as this commune still maintains this lady sovereign, for she has stripped the wicked of all power.

The fresco on the other side, representing evil government, is less well preserved, but its message is equally plain: a demonic ruler surrounded by vices like Avarice, Cruelty, and Pride, a city under military occupation, and a barren countryside devastated by ghostly armies. Here the inscription held by the figure of Fear reads:

Because each seeks only his own good, in this city Justice is subjected to tyranny; wherefore along this road nobody passes without fearing for his life, since there are robberies outside and inside the city gates.

There is no better way to understand what political philosophy is and why we need it than by looking at Lorenzetti’s magnificent mural. We can define political philosophy as an investigation into the nature, causes, and effects of good and bad government, and our picture not only encapsulates this quest, but expresses in striking visual form three ideas that stand at the very heart of the subject. The first is that good and bad government profoundly affect the quality of human lives. Lorenzetti shows us how the rule of justice and the other virtues allows ordinary people to work, trade, hunt, dance, and generally do all those things that enrich human existence, while on the other side of the picture, tyranny breeds poverty and death. So that is the first idea: it really makes a difference to our lives whether we are governed well or badly. We cannot turn our back on politics, retreat into private life, and imagine that the way we are governed will not have profound effects on our personal happiness.

The second idea is that the form our government takes is not predetermined: we have a choice to make. Why, after all, was the mural painted in the first place? It was painted in the Sala dei Nove — the Room of the Nine — and these Nine were the rotating council of nine wealthy merchants who ruled the city in the first half of the 14th century. So it served not only to remind these men of their responsibilities to the people of Siena, but also as a celebration of the republican form of government that had been established there, at a time of considerable political turmoil in many of the Italian cities. The portrayal of evil government was not just an academic exercise: it was a reminder of what might happen if the rulers of the city failed in their duty to the people, or if the people failed in their duty to keep a watchful eye on their representatives.