4 16 13 Basic Questions o Where did we get this idea of democracy All great political thinkers up until the 19th century were monarchists Plato Aristotle Aquinas Hobbes Kant Hegel Ethical society is duty based Hagel All revolutions are talking about liberty freedom Does this imply that there is no obligation duty Liberty freedom v Duty Obligation Are these things in conflict Democracy o Everyone gets to participate everyone gets to vote o Legitimacy Source of Power Government claims they can do things such as building roads through legitimacy Will of the people The people elected them so their actions are the will of the people o Who do we blame when things go badly Leader or the people We should blame the people because it is their will that got the leader elected o What happens when things have gone so wrong that you need regime change This is a weakness of democracy Pretty impossible to change the people as a whole Your options are to kill the people put in your own government and tell their people for years that they suck Extreme view This is what the Allies did in Germany after WWII People can themselves recognize that something has seriously gone wrong and realize they need a new leader Bottom up change Very difficult to do Secession Will probably lead to war Democracy totalitarianism o You can abuse the system of voting with a fear mongering demagogue to rise in power to essentially the highest governing position and then you can implement o If you claim to have entire will of people behind you then what does it mean to oppose that person You are opposing the will of the people You have made yourself an enemy of the state Democracy seems to be mob related rule of the poor o If you have a demagogue that wants to rise to power you will try to gain support of the poor by attacking the rich Plato Aristotle worry that by giving everyone a vote that Demagogues will sway the poor Their fear about democracy is that it is too easily corrupted Monarchy only takes 1 bullet for change because it is easy to kill a single rule while Democracy requires you to change ALL of the people in order to enact governing change Obligations Duties o If we take idea of freedom to next logical step where does duty fall into it o Does voting and being a citizen of liberal democracy not place some obligations upon you 4 18 13 Objections to Democracy o Locke doesn t trust Atheist and Catholics Can t trust atheists Can t trust Catholic because they are secretly taking orders rom the People Dual Loyalty o Language Used happiness Macintyre savages people who believe in equality liberty and the pursuit of Says that everyone s definitions are different and often contradict How can you have things making up liberal democracy when we can t even come to a solid conclusion on their definitions This is Macintyre s objection Can t defend something with multiple definitions o Hoppe s objections to liberal democracy Knowing that they have a fixed term Problem Self interest is for that time period as opposed to long term goals After term is over other problems are the new guy gal s problem What motivation do you have to care about long term occurrence o Nothing Most rare long term achievements come in 2nd term o Reagan tax code reform Universal Adult Suffrage Wouldn t it be a great argument Destroys the class system because everyone has equal power Give illiterate people control possibly As a rule you do not mess with property rights unless there is an act of treason Very few monarch are willing to mess with this Any writs to take property have to come directly from the monarch We have a judicial branch that is equal to other branches and not answerable Judiciary has the power to compel the surrender of your property if the executive legislature tells them too Eminent Domain o Government says you are not using you land well enough and they are going to take it and use it for public good o Kelo v City of New Condon 2004 Case law stating that eminent domain is acceptable You will never see this in a monarchy Objections to Monarchy If monarch is sole source of power in the Kingdom who has the authority to legitimately charge a monarch with a crime Essentially the monarch is the judge jury and the executioner o Charles in 1649 says that you cannot do this Was he illegally executed o Was Louis XVI illegally executed in 1792 o Does this make all future governments illegitimate Dynastic Marriages o In WWI monarchs of Russia Germany and England are all Victoria s o Problem of intermarriage is occurring o Kings had DNA that was so messed up because their parents were grandchildren closely related Deformed physical attributes mental retardation etc Carlos the Sufferer of Spain Not as open transparent in monarchy which can often lead to a planned economy moving away from free enterprise o Economic problem of monarchy o All operations behind closed doors o Transparency is a huge issue In certain monarchies they re worried about what is going on in close proximity not the entire region o Multiple levels of accountable leadership in Democracy Monarchy lacks this o Democracy better for addressing local issues 4 23 13 left off at problems of a monarchy Control of the economy by the monarchy centralized economy headed by the monarch National direction of the economy is set by the monarch Who has the power to hold the monarch accountable accountability of the sovereign o France 1791 92 with Louis on trial Charles 1649 Dynastic failure problems with inbreeding a childless monarch o Ex of childless monarchies Elizabeth I dynasty ends with her Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette whose children were killed with them brother Louis XVIII takes over You have a hereditary monarch but they re incapacitated o Ex mental issues from inbreeding Single tier of government o No real functioning legislature o King and his cabinet of ministers Feudalism is a two edged sword Lack of government transparency o Cahiers d etat books of the government had never been released before and when they were it let the public see the expenses of the monarchy and how much everyone made Confessional state with state and church being hand in hand o Ministers and popes as civil servants drawing pay from the government Civil rights lacking writ of habeas corpus o The crown can arrest you for no reason simply because they don t like you 4 25 13 Is there a way to incorporate the economics of a monarchial system feudal etc into a democracy and vice versa Democracy Monarchy