Politics Essays Fundamental Principles Of Legitimate Power

Politics Essays primaeval Principles Of Legitimate Power in that location be various theories about what net make former legitimate. Doyou think that one theory is to a greater extent convincing than others?To understand thefundawork forcetal principles of legitimate power and authorities one mustiness tang at theperiod surrounding the Enlightenment beca make use of this is the time when the private became an important entity, no eight-day was the single(a) part of aclass on a hierarchical structure, with power relating to that class. Thenatural rights theorists look was to show that opus was born in a state ofnature, and apt(p) the right to do as he/she wished, alone this was sacrificed tothe governance of the land, i.e. that the demythologized man would give up thestate of immunity, for the security and safety of law, governance and main(a)ty.Locke, give tongue to alternatively of natural endowment up the right to do absolutely anythingto the sovereign entity, th e rational man would put these rights in the handsof a governance that holds the safe of the sight as supreme. Locke did nonbelieve that man gives up all these natural rights, and each person retainedrights that were regulated by a semipolitical disposal, to hold a person wouldnot use their rights in a way that would price the rights of others. Lockes magnetic declination of rights was one of the first models of organic rightsto life, liberty, freedom and property, where the king was in that location at the allow for ofthe people and benevolent in nature.Theinfluence of John-Jacques Rousseau is also important, although not strictlyspeaking a natural law theorist, in the sense of earlier theorists. The mostimportant difference that Rousseau discussed in his works was that governmentand reason has not protected man but enslaved man, whereas in thestate of nature these rights were upheld in a paradisiacal state. One ofRousseaus most enkindle critiques of government and law was in the SocialContract where man was originally free but in order everywhere inchains. wherefore he believed instead of giving up ones freedom to agoverning body, it ask to be reclaimed by man but this did not meanreclaiming the paradise of Rousseaus state of nature. Instead these rightsshould be inborn to each man and that the government created is not only forthe sound of the people but should be determined by the will of the people.Rousseau believed people should bepart of the mandate of the government and law otherwise the government thatis essentially corrupt will take away these rights. Popular concernment makesit impossible for these rights to be interpreted away by the government. There wasan assumption of equality between men and basis rights to life, liberty,freedom, and protection from the corruption of absolute government (i.e. rightsto freedom of lecturing and assembly) and the right to a fair trial and independentCourt of law. This argument stems from the a uthors of the Ameri bottomConstitution where the rights embodied in the text were self-evident becauseall men were created equal and given certain unalienable rights, which areafforded to all persons of the globe, state borders set about no impact on theserights. The writers claimed these rights came from God. new(prenominal) theorists haveargued we have these rights merely because we are human. This argument is stillone used in the twentieth/21st Century as it is the easiest topass off, however there is no very moral justification for upholding theserights, therefore how can one say we must keeps these rights in the face of abreach or dissolution of them.Hobbes state of nature make outs up that Men by nature areequal Nature hath made men so equal, in faculties of the body, and mind Foras to the strength of body, the weakest has strength enough to kill thestrongest, each by secret, machination, or by confederacy with others, thatare in the same jeopardy with himself henceall a re equal in fear of death. thus if this fear was set forth by themonarch then this first law of nature legitimizes the citizens to ascension andset up a form of governance that batten downs this equality and that their basicrights are upheld. hence if the citizens of Hobbes state are able to gettogether to give the power of law and governance to a single soul theybelieve will uphold the common darling then in the same coalition they can deposethis individual if in fact their powers of governance and over the law aremisused. This state of nature is vatical in order to provide a theoryjustify the fair governance of a small section of society, or as Hobbes prefersa monarch. It is the equality of fear, the individuals right to everything inaddition to resultant laws of nature which provides the conditions for asocial contract to ensure security and equality of mankind. There are some worryswith Hobbes social contract which is giving the power of pattern and governanceto a sing le individual this is arguably giving this individual uncheckedpower. Therefore if every man has the right to everything and then ifthe state of natures equality is no longer the case because the power of lawlays in an individuals hands where this individual has the wants and desiresto take everything. Hence there will be a tyrannical government, quite an thana government for the common estimable.Utilitarianismis not a theory of individual rights, instead it views that the good of thecommunity was a more important aim for the law and government ruled by thepeople. Theorists such as Edmund Burke believed that rights werenatural, including life, liberty and freedom but this theory was in theabstract, therefore they should be given by society for the good of its people,because these rights cannot be universal otherwise there is no place forcultural diversity. Burke is one of the first theorists with the culturalrelativism argument the critics of universal justness have save advanc ed this in the 20th and 21stcenturies. Burkes move to reject universalism was the first chip shot in theseinherent rights that ensured legitimate power how canrights be inherent if they not useable for everyone, because a culture deniesthem. Jeremy Bentham advanced this. His theory held that were no naturalrights the government for the good of society a form of utilitarianism,afforded rights. Therefore Benthamsrights were legal rights where one can do whatever one wants as long as the lawdoes not prohibit it i.e., rights are not stemming from the individual but thestates and the powers of governance (Positivism). The problem with positivismor this early form of rights from utility is that the law/governance are thebasis of rights and because there is no greater principle of just andlegitimate governance.Themodel of Marxism states that it does not regard the individual as having anyhuman rights, instead it is for the state to set theneeds of the individuals, i.e., it is not the go od of the individual that thestate upholds but the good and the needs of the state. Marx considered law,justice, freedom and democracy as ideas and concepts that are determined byhistorical and sociological circumstances and irrelevant. Instead a personsessence was the potential to use ones ability to the fullest and satisfy onesneeds, thereforepromoting fundamental rights as rights of well-being and satisfaction of theindividual. These rights would involve social and economic rights, which isthe only way to ensure legitimate power and justice. Marxs vision turned outto be idealistic and failed in reality.Themost legitimate version of power and governance seems to be a mixture oftraditional utilitarianism that affords a mode of human rights. Modern utilitarian theorists have extended the theory of Bentham,but have put it in more modern terms. Instead of maximising the pleasuresand desires of the individual the government would be maximising thegeneral upbeat of individuals therefo re minimising frustration of wantsand preferences. Therefore what one cansee is that the governing bodies must put the general welfare first, yetminimise the individuals needs therefore causing a conflict of rightsbetween what is in the name of the society and what the individual wants. Theproblems with this theory is it is socially constructed, there is no autonomyof being and no argument for universal rights that transcend all cultures andreligions, therefore falling dead of what is needed for an all-encompassinghuman rights theory, as the general welfare can be opposite fordiffering cultures. Rawls in his thesis for engendering human rights statesthat justice is the prime basis ofall government and to ensure justice human rights are the obvious means and endto ensure justice is fulfilled. Rawls theory is based on a few come upon ideas,which are the rights and duties of government/institution of society andthe burdens and benefits of citizens co-operating. Rawls bases histheor y that each individual has an inherent and inviolable being set in justice- this being cannot be overridden for the welfare of the society. This theorydoes not fall foul to the arguments against modern utilitarianism. Rawls doesuse the social contract fictionalization of Hobbes and Locke, however the basis ofmoving from ignorance (state of nature) is reason and this reason set up onprinciples of justice that his social contract is based upon. These principlesare 1) that each person has basic rights and liberties in accordance withfreedom and 2) there is distributive justice, where inequalities arerestrained by the greatest benefit of least advantaged and each personhas the condition of fair equality of opportunity. These principlescannot be derogated for the public good and liberty is the supreme principle.Rawls theory is very important when looking at human rights theories becauseit begins to tackle the universality of human rights based on justice, as wellas the inequalities appa rent in society. The theory does have flaws but it oneof the more house-to-house theories setting up basis rights and freedoms andensuring legitimate power because it protects the individuals democraticrights, because it is a more complex analysis of the nation-state and asAndrews and Sayward argueThe modern Western approach to political legitimacy links it withthe opportunities for democratic participation, so that democracy is now seenas a necessary condition of political legitimacy In theories of politicallegitimacy a stomp of a domestic state with its own domestic populationcan easily emerge. tho the actual histories of state are much more complicatedthan that.BibliographyAndrews Saward, 2005, LivingPolitical Ideas, Edinburgh University PressEdmund Burke, Reflections onthe diversity in France, (Hackett,Indianapolis, 1987) ed. J.G.A. 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Janusz Symonides, Human RightsConcepts and Standards, (UNESCO Publishing, Aldershot, 2000)John Rawls, The Theory of Justice (OxfordUniver sity Press, Oxford, 1971)