Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought - Expanded Edition (Princeton Classics)

“The source of every crime, is some defect of the understanding; or some error in reasoning; or some sudden force of the passions. Defect in the understanding is ignorance; in reasoning, erroneous opinion.”- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan“For by Art is created that great LEVIATHAN called a COMMON-WEALTH, or STATE, (in latine CIVITAS) which is but an Artificiall Man; though of greater stature and strength than the Naturall, for whose protection and defence it was intended; and in which, the Soveraignty is an Artificiall Soul, as giving life and motion to the whole body;”-Thomas Hobbes, LeviathanIf you could create a nation, "by art," how would you constitute the government? What principles would you base it on? Would you promote the common good, or the good of an elite? Which do you think is better, enlightened self government, or dictatorship? How would you promote stability and deal with those who didn't agree and would not be accommodated?How is our nation constituted? Do you think you know?I picked up Sheldon Wolin's, "Politics and Vision," on the recommendation of Chris Hedges, that modern Jeremiah, that implacable critic of runaway Capitalism. Hedges called the book a masterpiece. It may be that. I can say without reservation that I was enlightened. What I got from my reading of the book was an appreciation for the sweep of the development of political theory, which did not, like Athena, spring full grown, but advanced in comprehensible steps from the prehistoric, "state of nature," (man in the wild) to civilization (in its various forms of government).Wolin starts with Plato in ancient Greece and moves through the great theorists and philosophers, from Aristotle, Augustine, Machiavelli, Calvin, Hobbes, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Marx to John Dewey and many others. What Wolin shows us is how the ideas and theories represent novel ways of looking at the management of groups of people as unified political entities, cities, states, nations, and superpowers. In the words of the theorists themselves, Wolin explores how these entities are constituted and governed, and how in each, the benefits and responsibilities of membership play out. In what way are citizens required to participate? In what way are dissident members to be controlled and coerced? How are the powerful to be appeased and the poor managed?Humans arose from the state of nature, where they were in animalistic competition with each other, to ever more complex levels of organization. Each step was an innovation. The first group to develop cross-familial cooperation and form into tribes had an advantage over those that did not. Questions of governance arose immediately. Who was part of the group? Who ruled? How was labor and how was reward apportioned? How was the common good identified? Wolin has combed through countless texts in search of the ebb and flow of political ideas.In all of his exegesis, Wolin holds up the yardstick of democracy and searches for the popular will and the common good in each of the theories. For instance, he finds in the rejection of papal rule by the Reformation the seeds for democratic action writ small. Where Catholic diocese had once looked to Rome for guidance, the now scattered protestant communities found themselves no less in need of organizational government, and so introduced popular sovereignty into the management of their churches.Wolin also wrestles with the issue of power in each of the theories. Machiavelli's innovation in the field was the stripping away of all religious and cultural ambiguities and reducing the problems of governance to a systematic application of power and manipulation by the Prince (and in his later writings a republican elite).The paradox of a liberal government is that though everyone starts in the same place (in theory, and certainly not in the case of slaves and their descendants) over time inequities emerge and broaden as proven in Thomas Pickety's book, "Capital in the 21st Century." This leads inevitably to the more fortunate preying on the less fortunate. To address this inequity that becomes oppression, government is often cast in the role of redistributor, taking from one group and giving to another. The injustice of this course is atomized in the Libertarian view that any taking is wrong. Since those that have the most are most often those in power, economic rebalancing is declared anathema, the Common Good a myth (or at best a naïve concept).The true value of "Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought," to me is how it elucidates the methods and modalities of those who would rule. All the theories cast, "the masses," as a problem to be solved, or as unformed clay to be molded, or as sheep to be led, by those in the know, led by the man behind the curtain, so to speak.In exposing, "the man behind," Wolin has meticulously described the evolution, construction and appearance of, "the curtain." Which was the necessary preparation for our mind to be able to grasp the enormity and horror of his revelation. The curtain is power.It is clear to me that the evolution of power is just that, evolutionary. The random mutations, which allowed Leviathan to evolve from a crude conglomeration to a smooth corporate entity, to an invisible and potent, "Superpower," were no more crafted than those that engendered the descent of the species. However arduously the political theorists have striven to describe it and to map its past, none could have extrapolated its future.It is no wonder that the, "imperial CEO," is immune from prosecution. These are the invisible oligarchs, the Mandarins, the, "Super," villains, the men (and they are mostly men) behind the curtain. I ask, what is a man who would benefit from the common wealth but refuse to contribute to it, who would take and not give, who would amass a fortune he could never spend just to wield power over his fellows? I would call him a menace to society. Yet, those who are raised to this ethic are as much victims as the rest. The poison in the oligarchy is invisible and not understandable by either its masters nor its slaves. It moves inexorably as a macrocosmic manifestation and externalization of Human Nature. Leviathan rampant and rampaging is s***ting in his nest.Politics and Vision is a search for true democracy in the annals of history and political theory up to the present day, but Wolin's conclusions are not heartening.Democracy is not, as often conceived, a form of government. This is the stunning implication of Sheldon Wolin's seminal work of political theory , To Wolin, Democracy is instead, "...a moment of experience, a crystallized response to deeply felt grievances or needs on the part of those whose main preoccupation - demanding of time and energy - is to scratch out a decent existence." Democracy has never been a form of government where the, "people," ruled. In all of history, not even barring the Athenians, some form of elite has always ruled by divine right, or law, or power. "Democracy is an ephemeral phenomenon rather than a settled system."Highly recommended.

Superb book. Appreciate the update. It was an important book in my graduate school studies.

very thought provoking book but a little long winded. not for readers who do not want to take the time to digest the concepts of the material.

I studied with Sheldon Wolin at Berkeley (before he went on to Princeton). This was a Golden Age at Berkeley for political theory: Norman Jacobson, Hannah Pitkin, Michael Rogin. A time when Political Science and Political Theory were at war.....something of a useless war we now know. Still, this is an extraordinary volume, a broad survey that has depth and insight. Wolin was a class act and a classic even in 1970. Brilliant and wonderful.....as were each of his collegues.

I learned so much about how political agendas setting 40-60years ago are impacting us today.

Easily one for the finest political intellectuals of the last half of the twentieth Century. "Inverted Totalitarianism" is the only concept that pulls all of our current morass into anything like something coherent.

After having read only 10-percent -- Plato, Aristotle and the Romans on political theory and practice -- I find myself entranced by Sheldon Wolin's depth and breadth of understanding. Informative, insightful and inspiring.

It's not a suitable textbook for a course, and it's not a good history book or a philosophy book. So I'm not sure what the purpose is of this text.

Mes deux commandes de livres sont arrivées en même temps!

"Anstupsen" - wie eine Elefantenmama das mit ihrem Baby macht um es von einem weniger guten Weg auf den (ihrer Meinung nach richtigen ) zu bringen, ist der politische Weg Amerikas seit den 1960er Jahren.In diesem ausführlichen Buch wird diese politische Technik bis ins Detail erklärt. Und so beginnt man auch zu verstehen, warum auch in Europa die staatlichen Fernsehanstalten, Politiker aller Coleur, sonstige Medien alle dieselben "Meinungen" vorkauen (vertreten wäre hoffentlich nicht das passende Wort).Achtung: dieses Buch macht betroffen, erschüttert und macht wirklich Angst. Es geht um die unterschwellige Manipulation und das Ausschalten unserer Meinungsfreiheit bzw. das uns glauben machen, dass wir frei entscheiden würden. Da uns Alternativen gar nicht gezeigt werden, können wir doch gar nicht frei entscheiden.

Wolin masterfully dissects the changing attitudes and perceptions of political philosophy - the impact socilogical leanings had on it - and much, much more. He is fearless in defending the original author's intentions (The chapter on Machievelli is particularly enligtening), and writes with a clarity usually lacking in this area of study.

to the political history of important western epochs

excellent edition