To buy, tout de suite

French Political Thought from Montesquieu to Tocqueville: Liberty in a Levelled Society?

Cambridge University Press, Ideas in Context

Annelien de Dijn

This study makes a major contribution to our understanding of one of the most important and enduring strands of modern political thought. Annelien de Dijn argues that Montesquieu’s aristocratic liberalism - his conviction that the preservation of freedom in a monarchy required the existence of an aristocratic ‘corps intermédiaire’ - had a continued impact on post-revolutionary France. Revisionist historians from Furet to Rosanvallon have emphasised the impact of revolutionary republicanism on post-revolutionary France, with its monist conception of politics and its focus on popular sovereignty. Dr de Dijn, however, highlights the persistence of a pluralist liberalism that was rooted in the Old Regime, and which saw democracy and equality as inherent threats to liberty. She thus provides a new context in which to read the work of Alexis de Tocqueville, who is revealed as the heir not just of Restoration liberals, but also of the Royalists and their hero, Montesquieu.

Declaration of Independence quotes of the day

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

[...]

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

[...]

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

[...]

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:[...] For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world[...]

Now online

at my SSRN page: "Not so Novus an Ordo: Constitutions without Social Contracts," forthcoming in Political Theory.

Poor John!

That's the chorus I sing several times when I happen to have the chance to give a lecture on Adams' thought. A brilliant thinker, constantly out of synch with his times; a true man of virtue who showed how much more to life there is than virtue; outshone as the champion of independence by Paine, whom he despised, and Jefferson, whom he promoted; horribly miscast as ambassador to France; an anachronistic Presidency; etc. Deeply admirable and all wrong all at the same time.

I haven't been able to watch much of the HBO series, but the early part of tonight's episode, with Adams excluded from Cabinet and the Senate alike, inescapably brough "Poor John!" to my lips a good five or six times.

Newly posted on SSRN

Montesquieu's Constitutional Legacies, forthcoming.

Now online

Theorists and Actors: Zhang Shizhao on "Self-Awareness" as Political Action, by Leigh Jenco, Political Theory 2008; 36: 213-238.

Adam Smith's Critique of International Trading Companies: Theorizing "Globalization" in the Age of Enlightenment, by Sankar Muthu, Political Theory 2008 36: 185-212.

Added to the reading list

From the new issue of the European Journal of Political Theory:

"Modern Natural Law Meets the Market: The Case of Adam Smith"
Amit Ron

Philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries who worked within the tradition of modern natural law became interested in political economy in part as they attempted to reconcile two conflicting images of economic activity. On the one hand, from the legal point of view economic activity was understood as a morally neutral and benign activity that could be regulated by simple and clear rules of justice. On the other hand, it was seen as a realm of political struggle, manipulation, deceit and the exercise of hidden forms of domination. This article examines the legal and moral contexts of Adam Smith's excursion into political economy by interpreting the roles played by these two images of the market in the theory of value articulated in book I of The Wealth of Nations.

"Commerce and Corruption: Rousseau's Diagnosis and Adam Smith's Cure"
Ryan Patrick Hanley

Modern commercial society has been criticized for attenuating virtue and inhibiting the ethical self-realization of its participants. But Adam Smith, a founding father of liberal commercial modernity, anticipated precisely this critique and took specific measures to circumvent it. This article presents these measures via an analysis of his response to the critique of liberal commercial modernity set forth by Rousseau. It principally argues that Smith's distinctions of the love of praise from the love of praiseworthiness, and the love of glory from the love of virtue, were elements of a normative moral education that sought to elevate civilized man's corrupted self-love, and thereby recover within modern commercial society a respect for ethical nobility.

"Locke, Waldron and the Moral Status of 'Crooks'"
Rebecca Kingston

This article provides an assessment of Jeremy Waldron's arguments (in God, Locke and Equality and his subsequent 'Response to Critics') that Locke provides us with a compelling version of liberal equality. A close examination of the case of the criminally convicted in The Second Treatise shows how Locke's commitment to the principle of equality is compromised. This is revealed in part through recourse to contextualist considerations. This leads to the suggestion that Waldron's principled rejection of contextualist approaches to the history of political ideas can lead to a distorted understanding. It also suggests a need for a more thorough consideration of how a substantive principle of moral equality should apply in the field of criminal justice and in liberal democracy more generally.

It's all true!

The reason why in recent years the British constitution has been altered beyond recognition-- abolishing the ancient and honorable hereditary lords, undoing the Union of 1707 that was the guarantee against Jacobite invasions from the north, and the carving up of the duties of the even more ancient and honorable office of Lord Chancellor-- is that there was a crypto-papist in 10 Downing Street!

Conspiracy theorists of the world, know your moment of triumph. We now have clear proof that, if you let your guard down for even a moment, 200 or so years later your prophecies will all come true.

The reading list

Actually, scratch that: immediately read upon receipt of the journal, and highly recommended.

Lee Ward, "Montesquieu on Federalism and Anglo-Gothic Constitutionalism," 37(4) Publius 551-77, 2007.

It's hard to be novel, correct, and concise in writing about Montesquieu; indeed, it's hard to be any two of those at the same time. This article manages all three.

Conference announcement: CSPT: "Intellectual Foundings: J.G.A. Pocock and the Cambridge School"

INTELLECTUAL FOUNDINGS: J.G.A. POCOCK AND THE CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL

September 28, 2007
Columbia University, New York, NY

Co-sponsored by The Heyman Center for the Humanities, The Center for Law and
Philosophy, and The Columbia University Seminar on Political and Social Thought

"Intellectual Foundings" will celebrate and reconsider *The Ancient
Constitution and the Feudal Law*. Published fifty years ago by John Pocock, one of the principal founders of the CSPT, *The Ancient Constitution* launched the late twentieth century revolution in the study of the history of political thought that gave rise to what is widely labeled the "Cambridge School."

This conference will bring together a distinguished collection of
historians, legal thinkers, and political theorists to engage in a concentrated discussion of the intellectual vistas opened up--as well as of those which might have been supplanted or occluded--by this work and a few companion works of the same period.

Speakers will include David Armitage, Mark Bevir, Janelle Greenberg, Sudipta Kaviraj,
Donald Kelley, David Lieberman, Kirstie McClure, Robert Travers, Richard Tuck, and Melinda Zook.

We hope this event will be of interest to scholars of history and theory
from the U.S. west coast to the east, as well as points between, and Professor Pocock
himself has made plans to attend. All members of CSPT and other interested parties are welcome to attend; there is no fee for attendance.

To register for the conference, email Jonah Cardillo at jgc92@columbia.edu
with subject line "CSPT Conference Registration." Please include your name, affiliation, and address.

For more information, please visit the conference website:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/polisci/cspt/2007_conference.html.

We hope to see you there!

Best,

David Johnston and Kirstie McClure, CSPT Co-chairs

CFP: Montesquieu

The Society for Social and Political Philosophy
(www.sspp.us)
is pleased to issue
a CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS
for a Roundtable on Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws

The Roundtable is to be held at Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, New York
on March 21-23, 2008.

This Roundtable is designed to explore Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws (1748). We chose this text because our notion of Enlightenment Political Philosophy, and perhaps even Modern Political Philosophy more broadly, has been dominated by the classical theorists of the contract tradition. We need to pay more attention to figures like Montesquieu, who form a counter-tradition in political modernity.

Given the influence of the implicit and explicit norms of the contract tradition on most contemporary political philosophy, the question is not merely of historical value. As a thinker outside of the mainstream tradition of political philosophy, Montesquieu may be a resource for rethinking pressing contemporary questions that have remained stubborn blind spots: especially questions about the passions and political life; about political virtue; about democracy and liberalism. In addition, both Montesquieu and the counter-tradition of political modernity more generally have been significant to post-enlightenment figures in political and continental philosophy like Marx, Deleuze, Schmitt, Negri, Arendt, and Berlin, to name only a few.

Applicants need not be experts in Montesquieu or in 18th century political theory. Applicants must, however, have an expertise in some area of social or political philosophy. Applicants must also be interested in teaching one another and in nurturing the ongoing exploration of the history of political thought.

If selected for participation, applicants will deliver a written, roundtable-style presentation on a specific part or theme of the text. Topics can be historical (e.g. influence of The Spirit of the Laws in the 18th century), contemporary (e.g. liberalism and The Spirit of the Laws), figure-driven (e.g. Marx and The Spirit of the Laws) or thematic (e.g. politics of the passions and affects). However, all topics must relate centrally back to some aspect of The Spirit of the Laws.

Prior to composing their applications, applicants are encouraged to review either the French original of The Spirit of the Laws or the 1989 translation from Cambridge University Press by A. Cohler et al. The Cohler is the official English translation, and it will be used by participants reading in English at the roundtable in March.





Roundtable participants must be members of the society in good standing.
You can become a member of the society at http://www.pdcnet.org/member-sspp.html
or by following the membership link at
www.sspp.us

Spaces are limited.

Applicants should send the following materials as email attachments to papers@sspp.us by October 1, 2007:

1. Curriculum Vitae
2. One page statement of interest in the project. (Please include a discussion of topics that you would be willing to explore in a roundtable presentation. Please also include the projected significance of participation for your research or teaching.)

All applicants will be notified about the outcome of the selection process via email on or before November 1, 2007. Participants will then be asked to send a draft, abstract, or outline of their roundtable presentation to papers@sspp.us

by March 1, 2008 so that we can put together a final program.

POLI 433

The syllabus for POLI 433, "History of Political and Social Thought 3: The 17th and 18th centuries," is online.

This is a course in the history of western political and social thought in early modern times—broadly the 17th and 18th centuries. It spans the English Civil War and Glorious Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the American and French Revolutions, a period that brought most of the political ideas of the west into recognizably modern form. The significant themes in the period include social contract theory as a mode of political justification; the idea of a break with ancient and medieval, Aristotelian and Thomist, thought; the possibility of a shared political life among members of different religious groups; popular consent; the rise of commercial and polished society, and the meaning of progress; the right to revolt; and the idea of a constitution.

First class is in Arts 145, next Tuesday at 1:05 pm. Space is available in the class. Prior coursework in political theory, political philosophy, or intellectual history is required.

Hume and Smith on Justice, Sympathy, and Commerce

(Reposted to bring it to the top of the page)

http://profs-polisci.mcgill.ca/levy/Hume_Smith/

The Montreal Political Theory Workshop
“Hume and Smith on Justice, Sympathy, and Commerce”
April 13, 2007
McGill University
Gold Room, Faculty Club, 3450 McTavish St., Montréal
8:30 am: Coffee available

9 am: Welcoming remarks
Jacob Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory, McGill University

Richard Virr, Acting Head and Curator of Manuscripts, Rare Books and Special Collections Division, McGill Libraries


9:15 -10:20 am: “Frenzy, Gloom, and the Spirit of Liberty : Paradoxes of Political Agency in Hume”
Sharon Krause, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brown University


10:30-11:35 am: “Humean Toleration: Policy, Paradox, and Law of Nature”
Andrew Sabl, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, UCLA


11:45am-12:50pm: “Adam Smith's Critique of International Trading Companies: Theorizing 'Globalization' in the Age of Enlightenment”
Sankar Muthu, Assistant Professor of Politics, Princeton University


2:00-3:05 pm: “Hume and Smith on Sympathy: A Comparison, Contrast, and Reconstruction”
Samuel Fleischacker, Professor of Philosophy, University of Illinois at Chicago


3:15-4:45 pm: Commentaries and Discussion

Chair: Daniel Weinstock, Canada Research Chair in Ethics and Political Philosophy, Université de Montréal

George Grantham, Professor of Economics, McGill University

James Moore, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Concordia University

Registration is not required, but those who e-mail Jeffrey Bercuson, jeffrey.bercuson@mail.mcgill.ca, can be counted for coffee and refreshments, and will be given access to the papers.

Sponsored by: The Montreal Political Theory Workshop; The Earhart Foundation; The McGill University David Hume Collection

Conference announcement: Hume and Smith

The Montreal Political Theory Workshop:
“Hume and Smith on Justice, Sympathy, and Commerce”

April 13, 2007
McGill University
Gold Room, Faculty Club, 3450 McTavish St., Montréal

8:30 am: Coffee available


9 am: Welcoming remarks
Jacob Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory, McGill University

Richard Virr, Acting Head and Curator of Manuscripts, Rare Books and Special Collections Division, McGill Libraries


9:15 -10:20 am: “Frenzy, Gloom, and the Spirit of Liberty : Paradoxes of Political Agency in Hume”

Sharon Krause, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brown University


10:30-11:35 am: “Humean Toleration: Policy, Paradox, and Law of Nature”

Andrew Sabl, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, UCLA


11:45am-12:50pm: “Adam Smith's Critique of International Trading Companies: Theorizing 'Globalization' in the Age of Enlightenment”

Sankar Muthu, Assistant Professor of Politics, Princeton University


12:50- 2:00 pm: lunch


2:00-3:05 pm: “Hume and Smith on Sympathy: A Comparison, Contrast, and Reconstruction”

Samuel Fleischacker, Professor of Philosophy, University of Illinois at Chicago


3:15-4:45 pm: Commentaries and Discussion
Chair: Daniel Weinstock, Canada Research Chair in Ethics and Political Philosophy, Université de Montréal

George Grantham, Associate Professor of Economics, McGill University

James Moore, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Concordia University

Sponsored by: The Montreal Political Theory Workshop; The Earhart Foundation; The McGill University David Hume Collection

Hmm.

Brad De Long and I have an exchange over at his site. I'm not at all sure that I understand Brad's post, or what it has to do with my Wolfe-Berkowitz post at Open University which he takes as his point of departure.

Anyway, an extract form my side of our subsequent e-mail exchange, in case anyone cares:

'What conservatism is,' is as complex as what liberalism is, or what socialism (not communism, which aspires to simplicity) is. It's a multistranded set of particular policy commitments, normative principles, decision rules and guides for action, and sociological theories about the way the modern world works.

Finally-- and borrowing from Walzer-- even a traditionalist has to do just as much work as anyone else at figuring out levels of abstraction. Just like a Kantian has to figure out what counts as a maxim, a traditionalist has to figure out what counts as a tradition (what we did yesterday, or last year? The particular thing we've always done, or the reason we thought we had for doing it, or the rule under which we did it but which to which we now notice it was an exception?) Common law judges do that kind of work-- the body of precedent builds up rules and principles, not just holdings, and sometimes a holding gets overturned in light of the rules or principles. Burke did that kind of work too, and you rough him up for it, saying "but he didn't affirm X holding!"

Andrew Sullivan follows up.

Adam Smith quote of the night

"Love is an agreeable; resentment, a disagreeable passion; and accordingly we are not half so anxious that our friends should adopt our friendships, as that they should enter into our resentments. We can forgive them though they seem to be little affected by the favours which we may have received, but lose all patience if they seem indifferent about the injuries which may have been done to us; nor are we half so angry with them for not entering into our gratitude, as for not sympathizing with our resentment."

TMS I.i.2.5

(My reading of Rousseau below has been inviting objections by e-mail; will try to respond tomorrow.)

Some good news

I've had no shortage of wonderful discoveries about Montreal and McGill in the last six weeks. Here's a new set I wasn't expecting at all-- exciting for both my research and my teaching next year.

The McGill David Hume Collection
The McGill David Hume Collection research grant, for those who'd like to come visit and consult those archives
Jean-Jacques Rousseau collection

Looking forward to beginning to consult them-- and to talking with those who come on the research grants.