SİYASAL DÜŞÜNCE

According to Machiavelli, violence may be a necessary means in politics, but it is rarely sufficient. The Machiavelist ruler must be both a lion and a fox at the same time: he must know in which case cunning and trick yield better results than directly using violence. Machiavelli often expressed that there is evil in man’s nature. However, this conceptualization of evil is not of religious but of earthly. According to Machiavelli, the instinct that lies at the bottom of human behavior is the instinct of ownership. Because the human greed does not have a limit, individual desires and interests constantly conflict. For him, while some people would like to obtain something, the others are scared of losing what they already have. According to Machiavelli, who has a sense of power with zero sum, the amount of power does not change. An increase in one’s power means a decrease and even destruction in power of the others.

Martin Luther lit the fuse of the Reformation movement. On October 31, 1517, he posted The Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the church of Wittenberg Palace. These theses had social and political demands as much as theological ones. These demands had three main consequences.
1. Catholic world was divided.
2. The churches were brought under the control of the states.
3. The bourgeoisie used these these demands as a weapon against its opponents such as aristocracy and the Roman Catholic Church.

Calvinist reformism dignifies work and personal success, and this constitutes the basis for capitalist development. Advanced capitalism, in turn, resolved the Calvinist limits of true religion around the believers of personal skills, industriousness and success. Calvinism exercised an apparently strong effect also in Germany, in the Wuppertal region as well as elsewhere, and the “reformed” faiths seem to have promoted the development of the capitalist spirit, as became especially clear in comparison to other faiths. Max Weber’s famous account Protestantism and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904/5), in which he interpreted the Calvinism of the seventeenth-century as an important source of modern economic practice. The broad outlines of the argument are familiar, though more often than not crudely caricatured. Weber was a subtle and perceptive student of history, theology, and economics. He never argued for a simple causal relationship between Protestantism and capitalism. Rather he identified the ways in which Calvinism contained a “spirit” or “ethic” that made possible the rise of capitalism and granted it legitimacy.

Here are three principles of sovereignty for Bodin as given below.
1. Sovereignty is continuous because beyond the changing governments, the society remains the same. The continuity of sovereignty results from the idea of continuity of political society.
2. The continuous power makes law for the subjects, changes the law, makes the new one. The sovereign governor is not subject to the law.
3. Sovereignty, above all, is the power to make laws for everyone generally, and specifically and to change laws.

As in all parts of Europe, the problems arising from Protestant Reformation in the 16th century overshadowed all of the other considerations in England as well. The political demand of various churches concealed the serious economic disorders that emerged parallel to the rise of modern trade and the collapse of the old economy. Utopia, which was written under these conditions, is a satire. The origin of the word utopia, which was created by Thomas More, is Greek. More used the prefix “ou”meaning “not” in front of the word “topos” meaning “place” and created this term which means nowhere, no place, anywhere, or placeless. He called his book Utopia, which he published in Latin in 1516. Since that date, the term has been generally used for a place that is outside the known boundaries of geographical world and human experience world. The model of society that More represents in Utopia is authoritarian, patriarchal, and hierarchical. There is a total economic equality. The elderly, husbands and fathers have respect and authority. Property is collective, there is no competition, and everyone works towards common interests.

Bodin’s preference for the best form of government is monarchy. Bodin bases his preference for monarchy on three basic reasons.
1. By stating that all-natural laws lead us to monarchy, he claims that monarchy is the most appropriate form of state to nature.
2. He expresses that the talented people in the country could come into prominence only in the monarchy.
3. He asserts that the fact that sovereignty that is absolute, indivisible and continuous, can only take place in the form of monarchy.

Hobbes adds seventeen more to these two basic laws of nature and reaches to nineteen natural laws. Security, according to Hobbes, cannot be attained by natural law. “For the laws of nature – enjoining justice, fairness, modesty, mercy, and (in short) treating others as we want them to treat us – are in themselves contrary to our natural passions, unless some power frightens us into observing them. In the absence of such power, our natural passions carry us to partiality, pride, revenge, and the like. And covenants without the sword are merely words, with no strength to secure a man at all”

Locke’s nature is defined by equality, freedom and rationality. Equality: Locke claims that each and every human individual is free, but he also sets some limits to this. Equality, according to him, is to have the equal rights for everyone to attain their own freedom, without being subject to any other’s will and authority. Freedom: Every individual has the right to make use of himself and his property in the way he wishes; however, he is not free to destroy himself or his property without a higher purpose than of its protection. The limits of freedom are determined by responsibilities derived from the natural law. Rationalism: Hobbes claims that equality and freedom direct us to rationalism. When human individuals are supposed to be rational, it means that they have the ability to make a contract.

Locke sets some limits to property: The limit of needs: We must leave enough, and as good, to those who need it. The limit of spoilage and destruction: God does not give the world and its possessions to us to spoil or destruct them. These are supplied to meet the need of individuals. Individuals should not possess more than they need. The limit of labor: Ad individual can only possess what he contributed his labor for.

Locke’s political thought is based on a basic metaphysical law that explains the political power and the administrative law. His epistemology privileges reason and empirical experience. He claims that human mind is a tabula rasa [blank slate]. All individuals have potential dispositions and capacities. In this context, Locke is a follower of Hobbes: He claims that ideas emerge from individual experiences that influence senses and actions emerge from these rational ideas

The fact that the church tried to centralize and protect its status quo led to the questioning of the Catholic universalism represented by the Roman Church. This religious universality would be dissolved with Renaissance and Reformation. The technological development that laid the groundwork for this new social formation was that the printing technology had been renewed. At such a time, Martin Luther lit the fuse of the Reformation movement. On October 31, 1517, he posted The Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the church of Wittenberg Palace. These theses had social and political demands as much as theological ones. These demands had three main consequences.

1. Catholic world was divided

2. The churches were brought under the control of the states.

3. The bourgeoisie used these demands as a weapon against its opponents such as aristocracy and the Roman Catholic Church. 

Therefore, the correct option is D.

Calvinist reformism dignifies work and personal success, and this constitutes the basis for capitalist development. Advanced capitalism, in turn, resolved the Calvinist limits of true religion around the believers of personal skills, industriousness and success. Therefore, the correct option is A.

The state’s sovereignty that ensures the unity and integrity of the political society is the foundation that makes the state as it is. Sovereignty is an absolute and continuous power:

Here are three principles of sovereignty for Bodin as given below.

1. Sovereignty is continuous because beyond the changing governments, the society remains the same. The continuity of sovereignty results from the idea of continuity of political society.

2. The continuous power makes law for the subjects, changes the law, makes the new one. The sovereign governor is not subject to the law.

3. Sovereignty, above all, is the power to make laws for everyone generally, and specifically and to change laws.

Therefore, the correct option is A.

The sovereign is confronted with limitations that might come from the economic conditions. According to Bodin, since property naturally belongs to a family, it should be beyond the domain of power of sovereignty. Bodin’s preference for the best form of government is monarchy. Therefore, the correct option is C.

Bodin’s preference for the best form of government is monarchy. Bodin bases his preference for monarchy on three basic reasons.

1. By stating that all-natural laws lead us to monarchy, he claims that monarchy is the most appropriate form of state to nature.

2. He expresses that the talented people in the country could come into prominence only in the monarchy.

3. He asserts that the fact that sovereignty that is absolute, indivisible and continuous, can only take place in the form of monarchy.

Therefore, the correct option is D.

As Machiavelli wrote about securing national unity in a divided Italy, Bodin wrote his works in France, which secured its national unity but was on the brink of civil war because of religious divisions and feudal political feuds. Therefore, what concerned Bodin was not the stage of the constitutive power-violence but the stage of maintaining legitimacy and acceptance. Thus, Bodin is a philosopher who represents the transition from the feudal system to the period of absolute central monarchies. He is also the founder of the understanding of a state which is absolute and superior inside and absolutely independent against the foreign countries. Therefore, the correct option is E.

The model of society that More represents in Utopia is authoritarian, patriarchal, and hierarchical. There is a total economic equality. The elderly, husbands and fathers have respect and authority. Property is collective, there is no competition, and everyone works towards common interests. Utopia takes the Republic of Plato as an example in some ways. There is a longing for the past in this satire where there is an intense criticism of the economy of the business life. Therefore, the correct option is B.

What Utopia is mainly concerned with is the happiness of people. According to More, happiness is not a singular thing. Happiness has a collective characteristic. The way to reach happiness is through implementing the equality principle. According to More, equality cannot be ensured in a state where property is monopolized and absolute. Thus, eliminating the ownership of property is the only way to distribute the wealth of the country equally and fairly and to make people happy. Therefore, the correct option is B.

Hobbes lists the chain of causes that creates the state of war as follows:

1. People are equal in the state of nature: The main reason causing war in the state of nature is the fact that people are equal in terms of their physical and mental abilities.

2. Inequality causes insecurity: Natural equality brings forth equality of the hope of achieving goals. Because every human being has equal chances with respect to achieving their goals, they have equal hopes. If they both want the same thing, the problem arises there.

3. The result of insecurity is war: Individuals want to rule others and to dominate them to get rid of the state of insecurity. The state of equality requires to constantly cope with dangers to survive and to dominate others.

Therefore, the correct option is B.

Locke sets some limits to property:

The limit of needs: We must leave enough, and as good, to those who need it.

The limit of spoilage and destruction: God does not give the world and its possessions to us to spoil or destruct them. These are supplied to meet the need of individuals. Individuals should not possess more than they need.

The limit of labor: An individual can only possess what he contributed his labor for.

Therefore, the correct option is C.