It should not be surprising, therefore, that the most “sympathetic” or “congenial” works are to be found among the “realists” in the history of political doctrine. Initially we look to Glaucon in Plato’s Republic, to Thomas Hobbes, and to Benedict Spinoza. Of these, and others within this tradition, only Spinoza’s work seems to have much in common with our own, and only his seems deserving of special comment.
In his Tractatus Politicus, published posthumously in 1677, Spinoza approaches the whole study of political organization in a way that seems surprisingly modern by our standards. First of all, men are assumed to be motivated solely by considerations of interest. This is an underlying assumption of the models through which Spinoza examines alternative organizational arrangements. He states, quite specifically, that human behavior is taken as an empirical fact and that he makes no attempt to attach either praise or condemnation to the behavior that he observes. Spinoza examines the various political institutions in terms of their efficacy in producing results which he holds to be desirable. To him, political institutions are variables subject to change and perfection, and he conceives the primary task of the political scientist to be that of analyzing the workings of alternative organizational structures and of making such recommendations for change as seem indicated. His work on the political order anticipates, in many respects, that of David Hume and that of Adam Smith on the economic order. Spinoza deliberately sets out to construct political institutions in such a fashion that individuals acting in pursuit of their own interests will be led, by the institutional structure within which such action takes place, to further the interests of their fellow members in the political group.
The constitutional and the operational levels of collective decision-making are clearly separated in Spinoza’s work. For the latter, at least in his aristocracy model (his discussion of democracy was not completed), simple majority rule is acknowledged as appropriate for reaching decisions in legislative assemblies. For changes in the constitution, in the basic laws, “common consent” or relative unanimity is suggested. Spinoza’s work, in many respects therefore, may be taken as the most appropriately chosen classical precursor to that of this book. It should be stated, however, that Spinoza’s influence on our own ideas has been limited to his general and indirect effects on the Western intellectual tradition. In a specific sense, we have carefully reviewed Spinoza only after the completion of an initial draft of the main body of this book.
Although Spinoza is often described as a follower of Hobbes, we do not find Hobbes’ work at all similar to Spinoza’s in relation to our own construction. As we have suggested above, it seems essential that some separation of the constitutional and the operational level of decision be made before politics, as a social science, can be satisfactorily divorced from moral philosophy. If sovereignty is conceived as being necessarily undivided and indivisible, this essential separation cannot be made readily. The contractual apparatus, to Hobbes, becomes an excuse or a justification for political obedience of the individual and little more. Hobbes’ construction is aimed at establishing a basis for political obligation, whereas Spinoza’s construction becomes a genuine theory of political order that, more than most others, is largely divorced from all issues of obligation.At this point, as elsewhere in this Appendix, it is necessary to refer to the work of David Hume.
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We find a similar emphasis in the writings of Christian Wolff in 1750. Wolff’s work is also noteworthy because of his clear conception of the collective organization as a set of rules or institutions that are subject to analysis, to modification, and to reform. His method, like that of Spinoza, was that of examining alternative political institutions on which members of the community of rational individuals might agree jointly.--James M. Buchanan, "Marginal Notes on Reading Political Philosophy" (1962) The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy, By James Buchanan & Gordon Tullock [HT Hartmut Kliemt]
The Calculus of Consent launched Public Choice theory and Constitutional Political Economy, and was a major milestone (recall) toward Buchanan's (1986) Nobel. I was sent back to it by Hartmut Kliemt, who had generously commented on a draft paper that I had sent him. In my paper I argue that (recall) Spinoza is concerned with the problem of luxury in the TTP (a key issue in 18th century political economy). And that in the Political Treatise Spinoza shows what mechanisms (recall) might be used to prevent luxury from corrupting the state. I noted in my paper that Spinoza anticipates (recall also here) Hume and James Buchanan in uncanny ways. I noted that I was not the first to muse about this connection. (In particular I cite Doug Den Uyl and Kliemt.)
The Calculus of Consent has two appendices. The one that I quoted above is by James Buchanan. The Appendix is explicitly designed to forestall a certain kind of objection: "Our work could, quite properly, be charged with serious omission if we should fail to include what must be, at best, relatively uninformed commentary on the classical treatment of some of these problems....We hope that these notes will be helpful in relating our analysis to what has gone before and in pointing up the differences which, in our view, make the analysis contained in the main text of this book essentially unique." Buchanan then goes on to describe the "relation of political science to moral philosophy" and how to situate Buchanan & Tullock's achievement. I hope to return to that some day. He then turns to Spinoza, who is explicitly recognized as anticipating their own approach.
First, Spinoza is treated as a proto-rational choice theorist.* In particular, he treats Spinoza (correctly) as a theorist of alternative organizational structures (hereafter: mechanism design or mechanism). This is exactly right (and also anticipates another Chicago trained Nobel, George Stigler). And, more important what Spinoza's mechanisms have in common is the attempt not to reform human nature, or to turn people into the wise, but rather to make human nature serve the common good; as Spinoza puts it in the Political Treatise, “I conclude that those common perils of peace of which we here speak , must never directly but indirectly be prohibited , namely by making the fundamental principles of the government such as to have for result not that the mass of the people strive to live wisely ( for this is impossible ) but be led by such dispositions as will promote the state's weal. (TP 10.6; translated by William McCall, 1854--this is the translation Buchanan used.)+ This indeed anticipates Hume (Smith, and Buchanan).
Second, Buchanan is even more struck by the anticipation of his distinction between constitutional level and operational levels of collective decision-making in Spinoza's treatment of aristocracy. At the constitutional level Buchanan and Tullock require unanimity, and he sees Spinoza's use of “common consent” as a kind of ("relative") unanimity. It is worth noting that in McCall's translation, Spinoza only uses the phrase in 2.17. But that precedes the treatment of aristocracy. And, indeed, what Spinoza says there is true not just of aristocracy, but for all kinds of constitutions: "This right,which is determined by the power of the multitude, is usually called government. And he possesses this right absolutely and without limitation, who by common consent has the guidance of the commonwealth, which consists in establishing, interpreting, abolishing laws, fortifying cities, deciding on war and peace, etc." (TP 2.17) And so one can see why Buchanan was primed to read this as equivalent to his constitutional level.
It is worth noting that Spinoza anticipates Hume's account of the genesis of the institution of justice (which really is for him the political founding: "that justice is the sense that “all the members of the society express to one another, and which induces them to regulate their conduct by certain rules” (3.2.2.10). This is also a unanimity requirement. But here (in Spinoza and Hume), the distance with Hobbes is not far. For, in Leviathan, the commonwealth is, when not founded through conquest, instituted by a unanimous covenant “of every man with every man . . . as if every man should say to every man, I Authorise and give up my Right of Governing myselfe, to this Man, or to this Assembly of men.” Of course, Buchanan would not deny that.
Buchanan makes two related claims about the difference between Hobbes and Spinoza.One is an odd mistake, the other is perceptive. In reverse order, first, he implies that Spinoza allows for divided sovereignty. That's strictly speaking false. Spinoza is as unitary about sovereignty as Hobbes is (which is revealed in Spinoza's treatment of the need for the sovereign to control the church). But it's true that Spinoza thinks there are benefits to be derived from functional division of powers that make it look as if he is willing to allow for division of powers. But, on a more fundamental level Buchanan is right, Hobbes offers an account of obligation whereas Spinoza does not.** By contrast in Spinoza, and now I quote a perceptive treatment by Justin Steinberg, "The commonwealth must be structured so as to promote compliance; when there is excessive vice or non-compliance, the blame must be “laid at the door of the commonwealth.”
Interestingly enough, the contrast between Hobbes and Spinoza on obligation is not in J. W. Gough's The Social Contract, which is the authority Buchanan claims to follow when he describes Wolff's debts to Spinoza. (In the first (1936) edition, Gough writes: "The most important of the followers of Hobbes was Spinoza, who constructed a theory of political obligation which in most essentials corresponds closely to Hobbes's." (107))++ So, Buchanan read his sources with independent mind.++
Okay, let me wrap up. Buchanan says explicitly that Spinoza did not influence the development of his thought. He does repeatedly credit (also in The Calculus of Consent), the great Swedish economist, Wicksell, with decisive influence on him (including the point about unanimity). So, this naturally made me wonder, whether Wicksell could have been influenced by Spinoza. Thanks to Google my search was brief and fruitful. Below I picture the closing lines of Wickell's (1917) fascinating review of the revised, second Swedish translation of Mill's On Liberty. To be continued:
*I think it is worth reflecting on to what degree this is entirely true of Spinoza.
*Here is Curley's translation: "I conclude, then, that those common vices of peace which we’re speaking about here should never be prohibited directly, but only indirectly, by laying down foundations of the state which will result, not in most people being eager to live wisely—that’s impossible—but in their being guided by affects more advantageous to the Republic.” (TP 10.6 [Vb212])
**I don't mean to ignore the manner in which Hobbes is also misrepresented; after all Hobbes' approach is compatible with a parliamentary sovereignty and rule of law.
++It's possible the second edition of Gough's book (which is Buchanan's source) is better. If you have access to it, please check for me! Also, the claim that Wolff is in non-trivial ways a follower of Spinoza seems to be inferred from Gough's presentation of Wolff, but is not stated.
Do Buchanan and Tullock ever treat property rights as needing any sort of explanation or justification in their theory? Or do they take property rights for granted, and then investigate which social arrangements would receive unanimous consent in dealing with property?
Does Spinoza have a theory of property? If not, can one infer anything from that omission about property in Spinoza's conception of a state that is aligned with nature?
Posted by: Aaron Lercher | 07/27/2020 at 10:40 PM