For episode 21, see here
The Theory of the Nation State
XXII. Radicals and Communists
A. Radical individualism also arose in left wing popular democracy during
civil wars.
1. Dissolution of traditional institutions and resulting economic
pressures were facts not theories.
2. Individualism grounded in these facts.
B. English civil wars mark first appearance of public opinion as important
political factor.
C. Levellers: radical middle-class democrats.
D. Diggers: beginning of utopian communism, considered political reform
superficial unless it included redress of economic inequalities.
E. Levellers
1. Movement started by radical soldiers of Cromwell's army concerned
that the reforms of the revolution would be lost.
2. Sought political equality and the end of priviledge.
3. Connected to religious Independents.
4. Argued that unnust law was no law at all, even if traditional or
common.
5. Saw innate and unalienable rights for which legal and political
institutions exist only to protect.
6. Was party of men of small property facing officers who sought
only moderate reform leaving power in the hands of landed
gentry.
7. Saw Parliament as stand in for the sovereign people.
8. Every man had right to consent to law through his representative.
9. Argued for representation of individuals not interests, paralleled view
of community as a permanent reality vs. conception of nation as
simply a mass.
10. Levellers made natural law into a doctrine of individual rights
(with property right as primary) .
F. Diggers
1. Saw natural law as a communal right to means of subsistence.
2. Individual had only the right to share in the product of common
land and common effort.
3. Private property the root of evil and social abuse.
4. Gerrard Winstanley's Law of Freedom saw in human nature two
opposed tendencies toward:
i. Common preservation -- the basis of commwealth
ii. Individual preservation -- the basis of kingly government or
government by buying and selling.
Next week: The Republicans: Harrington, Milton and Sidney
The Theory of the Nation State
XXII. Radicals and Communists
A. Radical individualism also arose in left wing popular democracy during
civil wars.
1. Dissolution of traditional institutions and resulting economic
pressures were facts not theories.
2. Individualism grounded in these facts.
B. English civil wars mark first appearance of public opinion as important
political factor.
C. Levellers: radical middle-class democrats.
D. Diggers: beginning of utopian communism, considered political reform
superficial unless it included redress of economic inequalities.
E. Levellers
1. Movement started by radical soldiers of Cromwell's army concerned
that the reforms of the revolution would be lost.
2. Sought political equality and the end of priviledge.
3. Connected to religious Independents.
4. Argued that unnust law was no law at all, even if traditional or
common.
5. Saw innate and unalienable rights for which legal and political
institutions exist only to protect.
6. Was party of men of small property facing officers who sought
only moderate reform leaving power in the hands of landed
gentry.
7. Saw Parliament as stand in for the sovereign people.
8. Every man had right to consent to law through his representative.
9. Argued for representation of individuals not interests, paralleled view
of community as a permanent reality vs. conception of nation as
simply a mass.
10. Levellers made natural law into a doctrine of individual rights
(with property right as primary) .
F. Diggers
1. Saw natural law as a communal right to means of subsistence.
2. Individual had only the right to share in the product of common
land and common effort.
3. Private property the root of evil and social abuse.
4. Gerrard Winstanley's Law of Freedom saw in human nature two
opposed tendencies toward:
i. Common preservation -- the basis of commwealth
ii. Individual preservation -- the basis of kingly government or
government by buying and selling.
Next week: The Republicans: Harrington, Milton and Sidney
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