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Western Political
Thinkers
Scholars to be quoted

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Thinker: Scholars that can be quoted:

Plato E. Barker on Plato’s justice- “Justice for Plato is at once a part of human
virtue and the bond that joins men together in the State.”

Nietzsche criticized Plato for founding a just and a rightly ordered society
with the help of a necessary lie.

Sabine says Plato’s scheme of education “provides the needed means and
imparts training to citizens consonant with the wellbeing of the State.”

Rousseau on Plato’s theory of education- “It is the most beautiful

educational treatise ever written.”

Coleman, for Plato, such ‘noble lies’ (myth of metals) are needed for the
good of the State.

Sabine- Plato’s communism takes two forms- “First is prohibition of

private property for rulers and auxiliaries. To live in the barracks and eat
at the common table. Second is the abolition of permanent monogamous
sexual relationships, substituted by regulated breeding for
the best possible offspring.”

Hacker- “Plato sees the austere life of guardians to be providing another

type of satisfaction- that of contentment for others.”

E. Barker- “Plato’s theory is multi-faceted including eugenics,

emancipation of women, nationalisation of family, secure a better stock
and greater freedom for men and women to fully develop their
capacities.”

Nisbet- “Plato’s political philosophy is a blend of rigorous social nihilism

and political affirmation.”

Wolff on Philosopher King- “Making political decisions requires

judgement and skill. It should, Plato urges, be left to the experts.”

Voltaire on Philosopher King- “‘benevolent dictatorship’, where an

enlightened despot, without the need to consult people, would
nevertheless govern in their interests”.

Guthrie- Plato regards democracy “supermarket of Constitutions”.

Susan Moller Okin- Plato as an ‘inadequate feminist’.

Allan Bloom - Plato does not really believe women to be equal to men but
onlyprovides for the same for the sake of greater political good.

W. Fite – “Plato had the vacillations of an adolescent with Plato

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contradicting his own views in his later works like the Laws and
Parmenides.”

Karl Popper on Plato- “He is the enemy of Open Society”, his theory
suffers from “poverty of historicism and holism.
“Western thought has been Platonic or anti-Platonic but hardly ever non-
Platonic”.

Jowett – “Plato as the father of philosophy, politics and literary idealism.”

A.N. Whitehead- “The European philosophical tradition consists of a

series of footnotes to Plato.”

Aristotle Ebenstiein- “ Aristotle’s ‘Politics ‘lacks the fire and poetic imagery of ‘the
Republic’, but it is more systematic and analytical and after twenty-three
hundred years it is still an introductory text book to the entire fields of
political science.”

C. Shiels- Aristotle’s criticism of Plato’s Theory of Forms- “they are jibber-

jabber and even if they do exist they are wholly irrelevant”.

B. Jowett on Aristotle’s State- “The family and State are both said to exist
by nature, but the State in a higher sense than the family.”

E. Barker, for Aristotle, “state aims at being, as far as it can be, a society
composed of equals and peers [who, as such, can be friends and
associates.”

C.N. Johnson on Aristotle’s theory of state- “it is not really polis (state)
which enjoys Aristotle’s attention in Politics, but rather the form of
organisation of Polis, that is the Constitution. His theory of State is
properly seen as a theory about the Constitution.”

M. Nussbaum on Aristotelian Polity- “Against Platonic efforts to

eliminate conflict and instability through minimising the legislative
engage- ment of separate wills, Aristotle defends a conception of the city
as a ‘plurality’, an association of ‘free and equal’ citizens who rule and are
ruled by turns.”

Shefali Jha- Aristotle’s theory of state is a product of “political

naturalism”.
Aristotle’s Polity allows for the “wisdom of the multitude.”

Ober- Aristotle’s Polity is “an aristocratic democracy.”

Brian Nelson- “Aristotle was one of the first to stress the importance of
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the middle class in creating a stable and lawful political system. His
insight is as valid today as it was in the fourth century B.C.”
Nelson on Rule of Law- “Law, in Aristotle's view, is "reason un­ affected
by desire".
Nelson on Aristotle’s views on slavery and male supremacy- “He fell into
the conservative fallacy of assuming that because a particular social
practice or institution has existed over time it therefore ought to exist.”

Karl Popper on Aristotle’s Polis- “as a compromise between three things:

a
romantic Platonic aristocracy, a “sound and balanced” feudalism, and
some democratic ideas; but feudalism has the best of it.”

Shefali Jha- Aristotle provides a theory of moral action where “virtue is

state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean”. 3 aspects of
acting morally or by mean- “Moral acts must always issue from a choice
and not coercion; Need to cultivate the faculty of right judgement
(phronesis); By doing the right action repeatedly, that is, by forming good
habits, we can build a character, which will result in right actions.”

G. Parry argues that if the elites were the citizen body, who was then part
of the
judicial and political system within a ‘democracy’, such as in Athens, an
oligarchy
could essentially be created.

M. Walzer argues that the heterogeneity of modern states does not allow
the kind of
“moral unity” and mutual trust that has been projected onto the ancient
polis,
qualities deemed necessary to the functioning of republican institutions.

Ashok Acharya is also critical of Aristotle’s idea of natural inequality

which
becomes basis of his theory of justice.

Susan Moler Okin critical of Aristotle’s public private divide and

oppression of women.

Shefali Jha on Aristotle’s theory of Revolution- “Aristotle as a political

scientist who is showing us how tyrants actually behave in order to
maintain their rule rather than advising tyrants how to do so.”

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Machiavelli H. Laski- “the whole of Renaissance is Machiavelli.”

“Machiavelli is the father of political realism with the primacy to the real
world of politics.”

Ernst Cassirer, for example, hailed him as the 'Galileo of politics',

applying
inductive methods to social and historical material.
“The criterion of a successful state was efficiency and not legitimacy, so
his art of politics applied to both legal and illegal states.”

Sabine- “ He used history exactly as he used his own observation to

illustrate or support a conclusion that he had reached without reference to
history."
“Machiavelli was narrowly dated and narrowly located.”
"The purpose of politics is to preserve and increase political power itself,
and the standard by which he judges it is its success in doing this.”
On Machiavelli’s different views in The Prince and Discourses of Livy-
“he had one theory for revolution and another ,for government.”
“Machiavelli more than any other political thinker created the meaning
that has been attached to the state in modern political usage- state as an
organised force, supreme in its own territory and pursuing a conscious
policy of aggrandisement in its relations with other states.”

Dunning- “Machiavelli stood on the borderline between the Middle Ages

and the Modern Ages. He ushered in the Modern Age by ridding politics
of the vassalage of religion.”
Machiavelli’s study is “the study of the art of government rather than a
theory of State.”

Gramsci- Machiavelli was the archetypal ‘politico in atto’, the active man
of politics, embodying the unity of thought and action.

B. Croce argued that Machiavelli understood politics as pure power and

technique- a utilitarian form of activity autonomous from conventional
moral
norms and governed by its own distinctive laws.

Skinner writes- “The Prince ‘succeeded in making a contribution to the

genre of
advice-books for princes which at the same time revolutionized the genre
itself.”
“For Machiavelli the vicious acts of the ruler are the last best option.”
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“Machiavelli as a scientist or a technician, merely surveying
dispassionately the different forms of government and laying down a
science of statecraft.”

Hacker- Machiavelli is a realist who describes the world of politics as it is

without
creating dualities of real and ideal as Plato and Aristotle sought to do.

Wolin- For Machiavelli, human nature remains constant throughout

history enabling one to discern general laws of political behaviour to
maximize gains.
Due to Machiavelli’s pessimistic view of human nature, politics is “the
dilemma of limited goods and limitless ambition.”

Femina- “Machiavelli founded liberal pluralism, essential to modern

governance, that the primary purpose of politics was to resolve the
competing
claims of diverse interest and values.”

I. Berlin- Machiavelli “calls the bluff not just of official morality, but of
one of the foundations of the central Western philosophical tradition, the
belief in the ultimate compatibility of all genuine values.”

L. Strauss- Machiavelli is “the teacher of evil”.

Professor Maxey: “His passion for the practical as against the theoretical
undoubtedly did much to rescue political thought from the scholastic
obscurantism of the Middle Ages.”

Thomas Brian Nelson- “Machiavelli was Copernicus of the political theory and
Hobbes Hobbes the Galileo who carried Machiavelli’s revolutionary insights to
their logical conclusion.”

Marx on Hobbes- “He is the father of all of us.”

Hacker- Hobbes is one of the first thinkers to come up with the politics of
individualism.

John Plamentaz- "Psychological egoism, which so many of Hobbes' critics

have fastened upon, is not really necessary to his political theory"

Warrender and Hood- For Hobbes, Natural Law is true law of reason,
binding
upon both the subject and sovereign, but its binding force or obligatory

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character arises out of the will of God.

John Rawls- Hobbes' state of nature is the classic example of the

"prisoner's dilemma" of game-theory analysis.

David Gauthier- "authorisation, rather than covenant, is the dominant

metaphor in Hobbes' political thought, and that authorisation is a much
more adequate and illuminating metaphor for the formulation and
discussion of political relationship”.

Hacker- In case of sovereignty, two ideas emerge at once in Hobbes’

thought- political and legal sovereignty.

M. Oakeshott views Hobbes’ theory to contain mixed obligation

consisting of physical, rational and moral obligations.

Cassirer- Right to self-preservation was a universal right in Hobbes’

philosophy.

Wolin- “Individualism and absolutism the two sides of the same coin in
Hobbes’ political theory.”

Macpherson- Hobbes’ theory is seen to reflect the political ideology of the

incipient capitalist market society characterised by the doctrine of
"possessive individualism."

Dunn- Hobbes’ philosophy contained both liberal and illiberal features. It

was liberal because the state and society were constituted by free and
equal individuals who were egoistic, self-interested and selfish. The
illiberal aspect of Hobbes’ theory was that an all-powerful absolute
sovereign was a self-perpetuating one.

Stefano- Hobbes thoughts reflect “masculinist orientation to the realm of

politics” which continues till date.

John Locke Vaughan- Locke as “Prince of Individualists”.

“the true sovereign of Civil Government is the individual”.

Kendall- Locke was interpreted as a liberal because of his insistence that

the community would be ruled by the will of the majority.

Jeremy Waldron- The political writings of John Locke offer the earliest
example we have of a well-worked-out liberal political theory; and it is
still one of
the most influential.

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Laslett writes that Filmer and not Hobbes was the main antagonist of
Locke.

Martin Seliger- Locke’s work on social contract lays ground for “liberal
constitutionalism”.

R. Polin- “For Locke, freedom exists and is meaningful only if it is bound

to the obligation to achieve a reasonable order and a moral one.”

Laslette on Locke’s State- “that all actions of governors are limited to the
end of government, which is the good of the governed...”

Dunn on tacit consent theory by Locke- ““consent is a necessary condition

for the legitimacy of a political society, but the consent which creates such
legitimacy is not a sufficient condition for the obligatory force of any
particular act of authority in such a society.”

Macpherson- Locke’s work as a theory of "capitalist appropriation" and

"the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie".

Simmons- Locke occupies "the middle ground, calling neither for

unfettered accumulation of property nor for radical redistribution of
holdings".

Nozick- Locke is a libertarian, with the government having no right to

take property to use for the common good without the consent of the
property owner.

Butler- Locke as an enemy of patriarchism, preparing the grounds for

women’s equal rights.

J.S. Mill J.S. Mill describes himself as “Peter who denied his master.”

Mukherjee and Ramaswamy- “Mill was the hyphen that joined Bentham
with Green.”

Barry- While the emphasis on non-intervention in the life of the

individual tends to classify Mill as a theorist of negative liberty, the
defence of
individuality to facilitate deliberate cultivation of certain desirable
attitudes does
not preclude the possibility of understanding Mill as a theorist of positive
liberty

Shefali Jha- Mill sought to combine the two principles of competence and

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participation in every institution of representative democracy.

C.L. Wayper- J.S. Mill is a “reluctant democrat.”

Brian Nelson on Mill- “he wants to eliminate the defects of liberal

democracy, not abolish it altogether.”
“Liberty of opinion is the one virtue that prevents the tyranny of the
majority.”

E. Barker on Mill- “a prophet of empty liberty and an abstract

individual.”

Jenifer Ball and Moira Gatens- Mill tends to focus on the socio-legal
aspects of the subordination of women and not on the cultural aspects
which subjugate women.

M. Gatens- Mill is not concerned with the emancipation of women per se,
but rather with the benefits that would be brought to mankind.

Susan Okin- “Mill never questioned or objected to the maintenance of

traditional sex roles within the family, but expressly considered them to
be suitable and desirable”

M.L. Shanley- the incompatibility of the principle of equality espoused by

Mill and his acceptance of traditional gender based division of labour
within family.

Karl Marx Sabine called Marxism a utopia but a generous and a humane one.

Swaha Das- We can find in Marx’s writings two kinds of theories of the
capitalist state. One that is most often quoted from the Communist
Manifesto (1848) says, ‘the executive of the modern state is but a
committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie’.
Marx put forth a second view of the state in The Eighteenth Brumaire of
Louis Bonaparte called ‘relative autonomy of State.’

Harrington portrayed the contemporary radical view of Marx as being an

excellent critic of capitalism but unable to provide a detailed alternative to
it.

Karl Popper has criticized Marx and his thought for representing “so far
the purest,
the most developed and the most dangerous form of historicism.”

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H.B. Acton- “Marxism is a philosophical farrago”.

Mikhail Bakunin believed Marxist regimes would lead to the "despotic

control of the populace by a new and not at all numerous aristocracy.”

Shefali Jha- For Marx, capitalism was an economic system in which

exchange values completely overtake use values.

Choquet- while ‘Marx gave alienation a pivotal role in his early Economic
and Philosophical Manuscripts, the concept actually disappeared from
his mature economic writings’.

Steven Lukes- “the experience of alienation is an experience of a loss of

freedom.”

Tom Bottomore- For Marx, the rate of surplus value is also the “degree of
exploitation”

Antonio Tom Nairn- Gramsci as “the greatest of the western Marxists.”

Gramsci
Paul Ransom- Gramsci resolved two central weaknesses of traditional
Marxist approach:
o That Marx was mistaken in assuming that social development always
originates from the economic sub structure.
o That Marx placed too much faith in spontaneous outburst of
revolutionary
consciousness among the working class.

Bobbio- “Civil society in Gramsci does not belong to the structural

moment, but to the superstructural one”

T.R. Bates on Gramsci’s hegemony- “the basic premise of hegemony is

that men aren’t ruled by force alone but also ideas.”

David Harris states that Gramsci “is responsible for emergence of critical
sociology of culture and politicization of culture.”
criticizes Gramsci’s over-emphasis on the role played by intellectuals for
bringing about change as rather elitist.

Raymond Williams criticizes Gramsci’s concept of hegemony as being a

uniform,
static and abstract structure.

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Gitlin- Gramsci’s abstract idea of hegemony seems like a dominant evil

power seeking to colonise our entire consciousness.

Bipan Chandra views Indian nationalism especially during the Gandhian

phase as a
successful application of Gramsci’s war of position.

Hannah S. Benhabib regards Arendt as a “reluctant modernist”

Arendt
Feminist scholars like Pitkin are critical of Hannah Arendt’s divide
between the public and private.

Jürgen Habermas sees Arendt as usefully placing emphasis on the origin

of power as opposed to its means of employment.

Wolin criticised Arendt of “Polis envy”. (wants to go back to Aristotle’s

polis)

J. James on Arendt’s idea of Power- Political power is shared power,

collective action by members of a political community with an
understanding of power as communication not as coercion.

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