Three Bases for Government Essay Example for Free

Three Bases for Government Essay In government, the Lao-tzu says, it is important that â€Å"the people be kept constantly without knowledge and without desires† (Blythe 1992). Not to be misconstrued as a kind of political technique designed to manipulate or coerce, this means that they be allowed â€Å"to safeguard their true nature.† Government must in the final analysis abide by naturalness and nonaction. The sage ruler naturally never puts himself first or claims credit for his accomplishments. Consequently, the people are not aware that he has brought order and well-being to the world, assuming that the good fortune they enjoy has come about spontaneously. Ultimately the ruler himself must embrace nonaction so as to establish a model to transform the people that is, to enable those under the spell of desires to reclaim their true nature. Specific policies or techniques of government are secondary and must be â€Å"forgotten† if nonaction were to be realized. Government by nonaction is not â€Å"mysterious,† however. It does not involve mystical or esoteric practices, but rests on the claim that the transforming power of Tao, defined in terms of naturalness and exemplified by the ideal sage-ruler, would spontaneously permeate the mind and heart of the people. There is perhaps a degree of optimism to this view, but one which to Wang Pi is well justified. This is because the all-encompassing order of tzu-jan extends to the sociopolitical level. The institution of family and state is not extrinsic to nature. More specifically, the hierarchical structure of sociopolitical institutions reflects the principles governing the Taoist world. This explains Lao-tzus claim that Taoist self-cultivation, which Wang Pi again relates to realizing ones true nature, has a direct impact on the well-being of the family and the country (Blythe 1992). In this light, such concepts as nonaction, quietude acquire a more concrete meaning. In the Ho-shang Kung commentary, these concepts are subsumed under the rubric of â€Å"securing the One† (shou-i). In the Lao-tzu itself, the expression â€Å"embrace the One† (pao-i) is used twice; but Ho-shang Kung prefers the word shou to emphasize the importance of â€Å"securing† what has been â€Å"embraced.† In other words, ideal government, both politically and with respect to the interior life, depends on the rulers ability to acquire and to maintain the â€Å"One,† and to guard against harmful influences. For the ideal but practical, new democratic state, Jefferson coined the word sociocracy. Jefferson’s ideal government is neither individualistic nor collectivist. It consists of a dictatorship of three wise men who represent the technological, the temporal, and the spiritual spheres. Final veto rests in the spiritual officer in whom alone are found wisdom, philosophy, and moral ends. The temporal power, however, acts according to the laws of nature expressed through the social forces, and is guided in all things by social science. Jefferson was fundamentally right in believing that unless sociologists controlled the state, the social problem would never be solved. The first step toward the ideal government, therefore, was to indicate just what the social sciences are, and what they have to contribute to the knowledge of human problems and social progress. Jefferson insisted that the present order is the result of defective knowledge, neglect of moral teaching, and of anarchical habits of egoistic living. To erect the ideal state, the temple of humanity, there must be a consensus of organized philosophy, reformed morality, and permanent nonsupernatural religion. Capital must be moralized, the marriage institution renovated, and every other institution spiritualized by the awakening of the sympathetic instincts enlisted in the service of humanity. To lead and control the positive state, Jefferson offered his philosophy of science which is a scheme of education, a method of government, a school of wisdom, and a form of religion— in brief, a synthesis of mind, feeling and action, crowned by the religion of humanity. Carter also defended his ideal government on the grounds of economic and ethical principles which are closely associated with ach other and with the political principles which formed the basis of the ideal government. His aim was to achieve political and social solidarity through an economic but ethical revolution which would make the introduction of the new order possible and which would sustain and reinforce it after it had been established. The underlying principles of his state are, therefore, as tightly interwoven and as interactive as his aims and this was as it should have been, for Carter regarded society as an organism of the whole-and it was for the achievement of a unified, harmonious whole that he sought a solution. Because of the doctrine of evolution, Carter believed that man could not be considered as an individual apart from his surroundings, for he was born into an environment from whose effects there could be no escape. The problem, therefore, was to adjust mans conduct to the social organism, the whole, of which he was a part or to adjust the social organism so that it would further right conduct and the achievement of action that would be for the good of the whole. Ethics, therefore, became a sociological search â€Å"for right conduct† which was to be defined as the â€Å"stable adjustment of the part to the whole† (Blythe 1992).    References Blythe, J. M. 1992. Ideal Government and the Mixed Constitution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.