A HERETIC'S OUTLINE OF POLITICAL SYSTEMS
by Sam Wells .
The following is a general outline which breaks down political systems
into two aspects: governmental Form and governmental Scope. In this context,
the "form" has to do with WHO or HOW MANY rule (make public policies, decide
what the government does). The "scope" of government has to do with the
total EXTENT and RANGE of JURISDICTION of the government (no matter how
many or who the rulers are). A government's scope may be virtually universal
and unlimited -- with the government having total eminent domain (at least
theoretically) over all the people and every thing in the nation. That
would be totalitarianism -- or full socialism. A government's scope may
be limited (say, by a Constitution) -- leaving at least some areas of human
life off-limits to the government's jurisdiction. There are two categories
of Governmental Scope: Interventionism and Laissez Faire. Likewise, there
are two categories of Governmental Form: Whimarchy and Republic. The follow-
ing is highly simplified, but will serve to indicate the kinds of inter-
mediate forms and scopes between the two end points of socialism and laissez
faire. Since politics is based on more fundamental disciplines, its place
in the context of philosophy is shown by placing it in a broader outline
without going into all the details under the other main branches. Clearly,
IV is an elaboration of IIIB2b.
I. ONTOLOGY (Existenceology)
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II. EPISTEMOLOGY (Knowledgeology)
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III. ETHICS (Oughtology)
A. Personal Morality (Man the Individual)
B. The Ethics of Inter-personal Relations (Man in Society)
1. Voluntary Relations (Market Economics)
2. Coercive Relations
a. Illegal Coercion (Criminology)
b. Legal Coercion (Politics)
IV. POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (Governmentology)
A. Governmental Form: Who and How Many Rule?
1. Whimarchy: Rule by the arbitrary whims of rulers
a. Oligarchy (the whims of a minority)
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b. Monarchy (the whims of one person; tends to oligarchy)
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c. Democracy (the whims of a majority; tends to oligarchy)
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d. Polyarchal Vigilantism (gang warfare; tends to
oligarchy)
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e. Anarchy (gang warfare; leads to oligarchy)
2. Republic: the Rule of Law (the government itself
and its officials are ruled by constitutional and legal limitations; a
consistent application of fundamental principles; standard procedures,
due process, fixed "rules of the game" not to be changed by anyones arbitrary
whim for the benefit of some players at the expense of other players)
B. Governmental Scope: What is the scope of government powers?
1. Statist Interventionism: the government seeks
to "organize society" or cope with social or economic problems through
various kinds of intervention -- from controls and regulations and taxes
to outright state ownership and operation of the means of production
a. Socialism (the ultimate scope of statist interventionism)
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b. Fascism (tends toward full socialism)
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c. Welfare Statism (tends to fascism and socialism)
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d. Petit Interventionism (tends to c, b, and a above)
2. Laissez Faire: the government uses its powers only
to defend against and justly retaliate against those who initiate the use
of coercion -- criminals and foreign aggressors -- but leaves other people
alone with respect to their private affairs and voluntary relationships.
The scope of government power is strictly limited to this policy of laissez
faire. Under such a policy, the proper function of government is not to
govern peoples' lives and properties for them (which would necessarily
violate their right to govern their own lives and properties themselves),
but rather to keep people from trying to govern other people through the
initiation of the use of violence, force, or fraud. To this end, such a
republic would consist of a national defense, a law court system, and local
police departments, and a few ancillary functions. Beyond this line the
government would be prohibited from going. .
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Two general tendencies must be considered: 1. The Iron Law of Oligarchy
-- All whimarchal forms tend toward oligarchy; 2. The Iron Law of Socialism
-- All interventionist scopes tend toward full socialism. Given these two
tendencies, oneultimate system is a Socialist Oligarchy (A1a / B1a). The
other ultimate system is Laissez-Faire Republic (A2 / B2).
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So, one may say that the two ultimate social systems are a Socialist
Oligarchy on the one hand and a Laissez-Faire Republic on the other. All
other systems lie somewhere in between these ultimate alternatives.