A Brief History of Government

The first civilization began in the city states of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Mexico, and other
places where small communities spawned kingdoms. We can trace the history of this culture in the
wars fought between kingdoms and between nomadic barbarians and the settled communities. China
and India brought forth political dynasties that had little contact with the outside world except when
nomadic groups threatened them from the Asian steppe (or when a “civilized” conqueror such as
Alexander the Great invaded northern India). The empires formed in Mexico and Peru were also
largely self-confined. The Middle East is another story. Here political dynasties arose in
Mesopotamia, Turkey, Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Italy which fought other kingdoms for control of
the civilized world. The story of this civilization is the story of the rise and fall of kingdoms striving to
become an empire which controls a territory containing many different peoples.

Government is the institution which survives from this period. The history of government is largely
one of warfare although certain other functions also emerged. The laws of Ur-Nammu and
Hammurabi were noteworthy achievements. The extensive system of roads that connected distant
parts of the Persian and Roman empires allowed a central government to control far-flung
territories. The first Chinese emperor Shih Hwang-ti standardized the Chinese script, replaced the
hereditary nobility with appointed officials, and began work on the Great Wall. But a recognized
mark of achievement was how large a territory the empire might conquer and maintain. At its height
in the 2nd century A.D., there were four political empires which controlled a broad swath of land
from China’s Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of Gaul and Spain. These were the Han Chinese,
Kushan, Parthian, and Roman empires. Their societies were under totalitarian rule.

In China this pattern has continued into modern times. In recurring dynasties, the type of
government created in the 3rd century B.C. lasted for two millennia. Even though the Ching dynasty
ended in 1911, centralized government following the imperial model has been resurrected by the
communists. In Europe, on the other hand, no one succeeded in reviving the Roman empire. This
empire was split into two parts when Constantine I established a second capital at Constantinople to
govern Rome’s eastern territories while the city of Rome remained the capital of territories in the
west. Separate lineages of emperors ruled in each place. The last ruler of the west Roman empire,
Romulus Augustulus, was deposed in 476 B.C., marking what we in the west call “the fall of the
Roman empire”.

Many causes have been ascribed to this “fall”, including the corrosive influence of Christianity and
the moral corruption of the Roman people. Considering that the western empire was overthrown by
barbarian invaders, a more likely explanation is that the eastern border had become too porous.
Germanic peoples had begun to migrate into Roman territories lured by the empire’s wealth and
culture and even staff the imperial armies. After the Roman government fell, Gothic, Frankish, and
other barbarian kings ruled the western part of Europe. Their domains became the territories of the
European nation states. Several political leaders including Charlemagne, Emperor Frederick II,
Philip II of Spain, Louis XIV of France, and, more lately, Napoleon and Hitler have tried to reunite
the lands once ruled by ancient Rome, but none have succeeded for more than a short time.

In the eastern part of the empire, however, the Roman state continued for almost a thousand years
beyond the demise of the western empire. This so-called “Byzantine” Roman empire, ruled from
Constantinople, fought the Sasanian Persians, Islamic Arabs, Norman French, Saljuq Turks, and
Ottoman Turks, among others, to maintain its sovereignty before Constantinople was besieged and
taken by the Ottomans in 1454 A.D. Its cultural identity was related to orthodox Christianity as much
as to the Roman state. The metropolitan of Constantinople was the spiritual leader of orthodox
Christians. After that great city fell to the Moslems, ecclesiastical power shifted to Moscow.

Prince Vladimir of Kiev became a Christian in 989 A.D. Slavic peoples then converted en masse to
the orthodox faith. The grand dukes of Moscow annexed the Ukraine and other lands to create the
Russian empire. This Christian empire thereby became a continuation of the Byzantine empire and
the Roman empire before that. Its model of empire involved a partnership between church and state,
with the church in a subordinate position. The Russian czar (or “Caesar”) ruled a largely totalitarian
state which, like that in China, was readily adapted to communist rule.

By this time world history had passed into the second epoch of civilization whose distinguishing
institution was religion. We have seen that the Byzantine empire involved a partnership between
church and state. In the west, the church continued to exist after the Roman state fell. The bishop of
Rome, or Pope, became the spiritual leader of Christians living in the territories once ruled from that
city. Barbarian kings converted to Christianity. The church gave its blessing to their rule.
Charlemagne, who almost succeeded in reviving the political empire, had himself crowned “Holy
Roman Emperor” by the Pope.

Medieval Christian society was ruled by a partnership between the temporal and ecclesiastical
authorities. The Pope was the chief ecclesiastical official. The Holy Roman Emperor and lesser
princes held temporal power. This was not an empire of the same kind as the pre-Christian Roman
Empire. It was one where religion shared the governing power and, indeed, was considered to be a
superior power to secular government.

The Islamic religion had also managed to bring a large territory under its control. The ruling caliphs,
successors to Mohammed, combined religious and political authority. But, again, the religious was
preferred to the secular. The purpose of empire was to convert persons to the Moslem faith and to
govern society according to laws and regulations which Mohammed himself had prescribed. The
caliphates in Damascus and Baghdad had authority over the entire realm of Islam.

A later Moorish regime was established in Spain. Turkish peoples and others from the Eurasian
steppe later created Islamic empires. There were Buwayhid Iranians, Saljuq Turks in Anatolia,
Aghlabid Arabs in Tunisia, and Fatimids and Mamluks in Egypt. In a later incarnation of Islamic
empire, three great empires extended across from Turkey into south Asia: the Ottoman Turks,
Persian Safavis, and Moguls of India. These were not revivals of the type of political empire found in
those lands in the 2nd century A.D. but empires infused with religion.

As we enter the third epoch of world history, the institution of government experienced still more
changes. In western Europe, the Protestant Reformation took place. Power shifted away from the
papacy to the European princes who were able to choose the religion of their subjects. For instance,
Henry VIII founded the church of England, a Protestant denomination, after the Pope refused
permission to divorce his wife and remarry. Emperor Charles V (grandson of Ferdinand and
Isabella) seemed to have most of Europe under his control but, caught in the conflict between
Catholics and Protestants, he was unable to build a permanent empire. Pope Alexander VI’s division
of American territories between Spain and Portugal proved ineffective in the face of Dutch, French,
and English colonization.

How was government affected by these events? The Reformation taught that the Bible, not the
Roman church, was the source of religious truth and authority. Every man was authorized to read
the Bible and interpret it for himself. So the individual was religiously empowered; it was a step
leading to democracy. Another important trend was the rise of Parliamentary government, especially
in England. Parliaments, originally assembled to help the king collect taxes, took power away from
kings. The idea that the people should pick their leaders replaced the principle that royal power was
divinely sanctioned.

One 17th century revolution, the Puritan, and two 18th century revolutions, the American and
French, were milestones toward the establishment of democratic government. The successful example
of democracy in America helped to promote democratic governments in Europe and the rest of the
world. In the aftermath of World War I, three major European dynasties fell and were replaced by
democracies (if you count the Bolshevist government in Russia as a democracy.) The European
“revolutions” gave a shock to government, two epochs after this institution had been created. The
idea of beheading a divinely appointed monarch was especially shocking. One might look for a
similar event affecting the other institutions somewhere down the line.

In the third epoch of history, we find the European nation state as the basic model of government.
Democratic governments were replacing hereditary monarchies. Independent nations arose in South
and Central America in the early 19th century. A multitude of new nations arose in Africa and Asia
as the European nations divested themselves of their former colonies. An important element in the
history of the first civilization came to an end when the military threat from nomadic barbarians was
extinguished. Manchu China and Czarist Russia, equipped with firearms, had encircled their
homeland by the mid 17th century.

Wars were now fought to advance economic objectives - gain new territories, access to markets, or
control of natural resources - rather than to promote a religion. These wars tended to more
disciplined and restrained than the religious ones had been. Communism, a new economic “religion”
exhibiting certain features of Christianity, later took control of Russia, China, and other nations and,
for a time, seemed poised for further conquest. But history took a different turn.

Industrialization now became the key to a nation’s military strength. As religion had been in the
second epoch of history, so the influence of commerce was felt upon politics and government in the
third epoch. Access to oil was critical. Education was also important as an educated citizenry was
thought essential to a successful democracy.

The American Republic

Chapter III. Origin of Government

Government is both a fact and a right. Its origin as a fact, is simply a question of history; its
origin as a right or authority to govern, is a question of ethics. Whether a certain territory and its
population are a sovereign state or nation, or not--whether the actual ruler of a country is its
rightful ruler, or not--is to be determined by the historical facts in the case; but whence the
government derives its right to govern, is a question that can be solved only by philosophy, or,
philosophy failing, only by revelation.

Political writers, not carefully distinguishing between the fact and the right, have invented
various theories as to the origin of government, among which may be named--
I. Government originates in the right of the father to govern his child.
II. It originates in convention, and is a social compact.
III. It originates in the people, who, collectively taken, are sovereign.
IV. Government springs from the spontaneous development of nature.
V. It derives its right from the immediate and express appointment of God;--
VI. From God through the Pope, or visible head of the spiritual society;--
VII. From God through the people;--
VIII. From God through the natural law.

I. The first theory is sound, if the question is confined to the origin of government as a fact. The
patriarchal system is the earliest known system of government, and unmistakable traces of it are
found in nearly all known governments--in the tribes of Arabia and Northern Africa, the Irish
septs and the Scottish clans, the Tartar hordes, the Roman qentes, and the Russian and Hindoo
villages. The right of the father was held to be his right to govern his family or household, which,
with his children, included his wife and servants. From the family to the tribe the transition is
natural and easy, as also from the tribe to the nation. The father is chief of the family; the chief of
the eldest family is chief of the tribe; the chief of the eldest tribe becomes chief of the
nation, and, as such, king or monarch. The heads of families collected in a senate form an
aristocracy, and the families themselves, represented by their delegates, or publicly assembling
for public affairs, constitute a democracy. These three forms, with their several combinations, to
wit, monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, and mixed governments, are all the forms known to
Aristotle, and have generally been held to be all that are possible.