by John Marini
37 Ibid., 13–14.
38 Jesse Macy, one of the first presidents of the American Political Science Association, was typical of the early social scientists concerning the relationship of democracy, Christianity, and science. He noted: “The modern scientific spirit is simply the Christian spirit realized in a limited field of experience.” The conjunction of science and religion, Macy argued, culminated in the view that scientific truth provided the foundation of modern democracy. “Science and democracy have come into the modern world at the same time. They are mutually related as cause and effect.” Jesse Macy, American Political Science Association Presidential Address, 1916; American Political Science Review 11, no. 1 (February 1917).
39 Thus Herbert Croly, one of the most important Progressive intellectuals of the early twentieth century, insisted that “democracy must stand or fall on a platform of possible human perfectibility.” This notion of perfectibility, derived from Rousseau, is attainable only when it becomes possible to reconcile the particular and the general will. Therefore, Croly, like Comte, measured the progress of man in terms of his willingness to serve his fellow man. “If it be true that democracy is based upon the assumption that every man shall serve his fellow-man, the organization of democracy should be gradually adapted to that assumption.” Nonetheless, Croly was well aware that “the majority of men cannot be made disinterested for life by exhortation, by religious services, by any expenditure of subsidized works, or even by grave and manifest public need. They can be made permanently unselfish only by being helped to become disinterested in their individual purposes.… In the complete democracy a man must in some way be made to serve the nation in the very act of contributing to his own individual fulfillment. Not until his personal action is dictated by disinterested motives can there be any such harmony between private and public interests.” Public duty and private interests can be reconciled in careers on behalf of service to the state and society. Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965), 418.
40 August Comte, Catechism of Positivism, trans. R. Congreve (London: Kegan Paul, 1852), 313.
41 See Gillis Harp, Positivist Republic: Auguste Comte and the Reconstruction of American Liberalism, 1865–1920 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994).
42 George D. Herron, The Christian Society (Chicago: Fleming H. Revel, 1894), 32.
43 Not surprisingly, the great religious reawakening of the early twentieth century occurred wholly outside the established churches, many of which had accepted the authority of the positive philosophy. As Eldon Eisenach noted, “members of what later came to be called ‘fundamentalist’ churches were increasingly consigned to the cultural equivalent of resident alien status. But it was modernized evangelical theology and the new social sciences and not secular liberalism that drew up the expulsion orders.” The Lost Promise of Progressivism (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1994), 103.
44 When looking at the early Progressives, whether liberal and socialist like Henry Demarest Lloyd, Eugene Debs, and Lester Frank Ward, or laissez-faire conservatives such as William Graham Sumner and E. L. Godkin, they were in agreement in their opposition to the doctrine of natural right. Indeed, the status of natural right at this time is revealed in Merriam’s description of Franklin H. Giddings as one of the few who attempted to uphold a theory of natural right. “Disclaiming any connection with the earlier forms of this theory, he understands by natural rights those which are natural in the scientific sense of the term,” Merriam noted. “On this basis Giddings defines natural rights as ‘socially necessary norms of right, enforced by natural selection in the sphere of social relations.’” A History of American Political Theories, 310–11. It is clear that by the time Giddings had written his book Principles of Sociology in 1896, the theoretical and political understanding of natural right had become completely unintelligible and therefore meaningless. Science and natural selection had come to dominate scholarship.
45 See footnote 23 concerning the first books written in the new discipline of sociology; they were written by Southerners in defense of slavery. After the Civil War, social scientists accepted race as a legitimate category for defending the inequality of blacks, but rejected slavery as an historical anachronism.
46 Merriam, A History of American Political Theories, 311–12.
47 Ibid., 312.
48 Croly, The Promise of American Life, 81.
49 Merriam, A History of American Political Theories, 297.
50 Ibid., 298.
51 Ibid., 298.
52 Ibid., 311–12.
53 Ibid., 312.
54 John William Burgess, Reconstruction and the Constitution, 1866–1876 (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1902), viii–ix, 133.
55 Cited in Thomas F. Gossett, Race: The History of an Idea in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 284. Quotes are from James Ford Rhodes, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the Final Restoration of Home Rule at the South in 1877, 7 vols. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1893, 1906).
56 W. A. Dunning, Reconstruction: Political and Economic, 1865–1877 (New York: Harper & Row, 1907), 213.
57 Hannah Arendt, “Race-Thinking Before Racism” in The Origins of Totalitarianism (San Diego, CA: Harcourt, 1976), 159.
58 Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1953), 7.
59 Ibid., 33.
60 Ibid., 7.
61 Leo Strauss, “Epilogue,” in Essays on the Scientific Study of Politics, ed. Herbert Storing (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1962), 309.
62 Ibid. Strauss noted that “the Aristotelian distinction between theoretical and practical sciences implies that human action has principles of its own which are known independently of theoretical science (physics and metaphysics) and therefore that the practical sciences do not depend on the theoretical sciences or are not derivative from them. The principles of action are the natural ends toward which man is by nature inclined and of which he has by nature some awareness. This awareness is the necessary condition for his seeking and finding appropriate means for his ends, or for his becoming practically wise or prudent. Practical science, in contradistinction to practical wisdom itself, sets forth coherently the principles of action and the general rules of prudence (‘proverbial wisdom’). Practical science raises questions that are within practical or political experience, or at any rate on the basis of such experience reveal themselves to be the most important questions and that are not stated, let alone answered, with sufficient clarity by practical wisdom itself. The sphere governed by prudence is then in principle self-sufficient or closed.”
63 Ibid., 310.
64 Leo Strauss, On Tyranny, ed. Victor Gourevitch and Michael S. Roth, cor. and exp. ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013), 194.
65 Strauss, Natural Right and History, 314.
66 As Strauss noted, “One can say, and it is not misleading to say, that the Bible and Greek philosophy agree in regard to what we may call, and we do call in fact, morality. They agree, if I may say so, regarding the importance of morality; regarding the content of morality, and regarding its ultimate insufficiency. They differ as regards that x which supplements or completes morality, or, which is only another way of putting it, they disagree as regards the basis of morality.” Quoted in “Progress or Return?” in The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism, ed. Thomas L. Pangle (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 246.
67 Ibid., 239.
68 Strauss, Natural Right and History, 29.
CHAPTER 14: WISDOM AND MODERATION: LEO STRAUSS’S ON TYRANNY; MODERN THOUGHT AND ITS “UNMANLY CONTEMPT FOR POLITICS”
1 Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Hilton Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, August 29, 2013.
2 Leo Strauss, On Tyranny, ed. Victor Gourevitch and Michael S. Roth, corrected and expanded edition, including the Strauss-Kojève correspondence (Chicago: Univ
ersity of Chicago Press, 2013), 22–23.
3 Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953), 161.
4 Leo Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), 5.
5 Strauss, On Tyranny, 23.
6 Strauss, Natural Right and History, 31–32.
7 Ibid., 33.
8 Ibid., 32.
9 Ibid., 123–24.
10 Ibid., 141.
11 Strauss, On Tyranny, 194–95.
12 Ibid., 38.
13 Ibid., 27.
14 Strauss, Natural Right and History, 320.
15 Ibid., 320–21.
16 Leo Strauss, Liberalism Ancient and Modern (New York: Basic Books, 1968), 24.
17 Strauss, Natural Right and History, 318.
18 Ibid.
19 Strauss, On Tyranny, 207.
20 Ibid., 209.
21 Ibid., 210.
22 Ibid., 238.
23 Ibid., 211.
24 Ibid., 211–12.
25 Ibid., 212.
26 Kojève, to Strauss, September 19, 1950, 255.
27 Ibid., 209.
28 Strauss, Natural Right and History, 318.
CHAPTER 15: TRUMP AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN POLITICS
1 Ludwig von Mises, Bureaucracy (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2007; originally published 1944), 101.
2 Walter Lippmann, The Good Society (New York: Little, Brown, 1937), ix.
3 Ibid., x.
4 Ibid., 380.
5 Ibid., x–xi.
6 Ibid., 374.
Index
The index that appeared in the print version of this title was intentionally removed from the eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
9/11. See September 11 attacks
93rd United States Congress
101st United States Congress
1912 United States presidential election
1932 United States presidential election
1968 United States presidential election
1971 State of the Union Address
1972 United States presidential election
1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act
1980 United States presidential election
1984 United States presidential election
1994 United States midterm elections
2008 United States presidential election
2010 United States midterm elections
2012 senatorial elections
Academia. See also intellectuals
Adams, Henry
Adams, John Quincy, Aldrich, John H.
Alien and Sedition Act
anti-Catholicism
appointive office
Arendt, Hannah
Aristocracy
Aristotle
Articles of Confederation
Ash, Roy
Bacon, Francis
Baker, Howard
banking regulation
battleground states
Beard, Charles
Beltway insiderism
Benghazi (2012 attack on US mission in Libya)
Bernstein, Carl
Bessette, Murray
“big government”
Bluntschli, Johann Kaspar
Boehner, John
borders, national
Bork, Robert
Britain. See United Kingdom
Brookings Institute
bureaucracy
failures of
imperfect neutrality of
and the institutionalization of reason
partisanship in
political correctness and
rule of
as an unelected political faction
unmanliness of
Burke, Edmund
Burnham, James
Burnham, Walter Dean
Bush, George W.
CPSC (Burnham Safety Commission)
Calhoun, John C.
Cato Institute
cabinet departments
Agriculture in
Commerce in. See also Federal Trade Commission
Education in
HEW (Health, Education, and Welfare) in
HUD (Housing and Urban Development) in
Nixon’s “reorganization message” in
secretarial appointments in
Ceaser, James
centralization
age of centralism in
authority in
de Tocqueville and
inevitability in democracy
theory of
uniformity in
Christianity
church as foundation for self-government
citizenship
asylum and
ethnicity and
means and
moral capacity and
naturalization in
prudence in
religion and
civil rights
Civil Rights Act of 1964
civil society
Civil War
Claremont Institute
Clinton, William Jefferson (Bill)
Cold War
collective (versus individual) will, Commager, Henry Steele
common good
Communism
Comte, August
confederacy
Congress
administrative oversight of
authority of
autonomy of
advisory boards in
appropriations committee in
bill markups in
confirmation process in
deliberative function of
as institution
legislative function of
obstruction in
powers of
representative function of. See also legislative supremacy
Conservatism
Constitution of the United States
as antecedent
Convention of
First Amendment framers of. See Founding Fathers
constitutional authority
constitutional crises
constitutionalism
constitutional republics
court majority
court sanctions
critical theory
Croly, Herbert
Cropsey, Joseph
DHS (Department of Homeland Security)
Darwin, Charles
Davidson, Roger
de Beaumont, Gustave, Comte
de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron
de Tocqueville, Alexis, Viscount
Debs, Eugene
Declaration of Independence
deep throat. See Felt, Mark
Deering, Christopher J.
Democratic Party
Dewey, John
despotism
Diamond, Martin
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
Dove, Robert
Drescher, Seymour
Dworkin, Ronald
EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
economic conservatism
economists
Ehrlichman, John
Eidelberg, Paul
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
electorates
England. See United Kingdom
Enlightenment
Ervin Jr., Sam J.
evolution, theory of. See also Darwin, Charles
executive branch
powers in
privilege in
existentialism
FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
FTC (Federal Trade Commission)
Federal Trade Commissions Act of 1913 in
Federal Trade Commission v. Ruberoid Co. (1952) in
fascism
federal budget
federalism
Federalist Paper No. 10
Federalist Paper No. 37
Federal
ist Paper No. 49
Federalist Paper No. 51
Federalist Paper No. 55
Federalist Paper No. 57
Federalist Paper No. 63
Federalist Paper No. 70
Federalist Paper No. 71
Federalist Paper No. 72
Felt, Mark
Fenno Jr., Richard F.
Fiorina, Morris
First Inaugural of Ronald Reagan (January 20, 1981). See also Reagan, Ronald
Fitzhugh, Thomas George
Follett, Mary Parker
Ford, Gerald
foreign policy
Founding Fathers. See also specific framers
French revolution
free will
Frost, Bryan
GOP (Grand Old Party)
“German school”
Gilmour, Robert
Gingrich, Newt
Goldwater, Barry
Great Britain. See United Kingdom
Great Depression
Great Society
Guizot, François
Gunnell, John G.
Hamilton, Alexander
Hastert, Dennis
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Heidegger, Martin
Higham, John
historical relativism
Historicism
Hitler, Adolf
Holifield, Chet
homogeneity in the state
House Appropriations Committee
Hughes, Henry
human freedom
Humphrey, Hubert
Huntington, Samuel
identity politics
immigration
Immigration Act of 1790
impeachment
imperial presidencies
incumbency
independent regulatory commissions
individual rights
industrial economies
industrial revolution
inequality as a result of freedom
intellectuals
international trade
Iraq War
Jaffa, Harry V.
Jesus of Nazareth
Johnson, Lyndon Baines
judicial authority
justice
Kant, Immanuel
Kesler, Charles
Kendall, Willmore
Kierkegaard, Søren Aabye
Kissinger, Henry
Kojève, Alexandre
Koritansky, John
Ku Klux Klan
law
as authority
legislative majority and
as reason unaffected by desire
statutory
“unfinished”
legislative supremacy
legitimacy by election
Liberalism
liberty
as a local phenomenon
as a natural phenomenon