A number of critics [of neo-roman liberty] argued that, even if this contention is not actually incoherent, the suggestion that an equal right to participate in government is indispensable to the maintenance of civil liberty is so Utopian as to make it irrelevant to the political world in which we live. This objection was widely canvassed at the time of the American and French revolutions, with William Paley coming forward in his Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy in 1785 as perhaps the most influential spokesman for what became the classical liberal case. As Paley urges in minatory tones, 'those definitions of liberty ought to be rejected, which by making that essential to civil freedom which is unattainable in experience, inflame expectations that can never be gratified, and disturb the public content with complaints'. warning takes on an added significance in the light of the fact that his Principles became for the teaching of political theory throughout the nineteenth century.
I shall not attempt to counter Paley's criticism, save by observing that I have never understood why the charge of utopianism is necessarily thought to be an objection to a theory of politics. One legitimate aspiration of moral and political theory is surely to show us what lines of action we are committed to undertaking by the values we profess to accept. It may well be massively inconvenient to suggest that, if we truly value individual freedom, this commits us to establishing political equality as a substantive ideal. If this is true, however, what this insight offers us is not a critique of our principles as unduly demanding in practice; rather it offers us a critique of our practice as insufficiently attentive to our principles.--Quentin Skinner (1998) Liberty before Liberalism, 77-79
The quoted passage is just before Skinner takes on the main, "more knock-down objection commonly levelled against the [neo-Roman] theory I have been laying out." (79) So the quoted material is easy to miss also because Skinner admits that he is not attempting "to counter Paley's criticism." As promised (recall here; here; here; here), I shall take on Skinner's response to the "more knock-down objection" in a future post, but I hope readers find dwelling on the quoted passage instructive anyway.
One reason to think it might be instructive is that in the second paragraph, Skinner enunciates a principle -- "One legitimate aspiration of moral and political theory is surely to show us what lines of action we are committed to undertaking by the values we profess to accept' -- that is central (recall) to his defense of his methodology; near the end of the argument of his lecture, when he is defending his methodology, he claims that "professed principles...will nevertheless help to shape and limit what lines of action you can successfully pursue." (p. 105) I won't repeat my criticism of this claim here, but I think it is fair to say that while this part of Skinner's response to Paley (yes that Paley) may not be central to his own refutation of liberal liberty, it does represent an important strain in Skinner's thought.
So, it is a peculiar fact that Skinner misunderstands Paley's objection. For, the charge against the neo-roman definition of liberty here is not that it is utopian, but that is dangerous. The charge of "utopianism" is a charge of feasibility (e.g., "unduly demanding"). Admittedly, Skinner himself clearly need not understand the charge of utopianism as a charge of feasibility (despite "utopianism;" "unduly demanding"). For he also losses it, as a charge of massive inconvenience. This is indeed much closer to Paley's sense, and so I treat this as Skinner's objection. But even this misunderstands the nature of Paley's position.
Now Paley is clearly a consequentialist and, as Skinner suggest, one of the early utilitarians.* So, it is not surprising, even consistent, that Paley would evaluate the "propriety" (see Paley) of a definition or a principle in terms of its foreseeable effects. The key part of Paley's is criticism is not the feasibility claim, although it is present in his argument ("unattainable in experience"). That is not a problem. If accepting unfeasible principle would produce good consequences, Paley might (if it does not offend other features of morality and religion) well have to embrace it. But rather that in virtue of its infeasibility, people's expectations will be raised and denied. This is bad enough in its own right given that for Paley the "final" aim of "all rational politics" is to "produce the greatest quantity of happiness in a given tract of country." Let's call this Paley's internal objection to the neo-roman definition. It is internal to Paley's system and may well be unsatisfying to those who reject his other commitments.
But, Paley is also offering a political objection against the neo-roman definition in the passage quoted by Skinner at the top of this post. For, the political objection to neo-roman liberty is that it makes minimal civic concord impossible.
To see what this is about it is important to remember that there are roughly two models of the causes of political revolution. First, there is (recall) the Platonic model that in an unequal/class/hierarchical society disunified elites cause revolutions (Republic 545d). Second, there is the model commonly associated with Tocqueville that revolutions occur when things start to improve:
Revolutions are not always brought about by a gradual decline from bad to worse. Nations that have endured patiently and almost unconsciously the most overwhelming oppression, often burst into rebellion against the yoke the moment it begins to grow lighter. The regime which is destroyed by a revolution is almost always an improvement on its immediate predecessor, and experience teaches that the most critical moment for bad governments is the one which witnesses their first steps toward reform.--Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the Revolution**
One of the possible mechanisms behind this second model is anticipated in Paley's idea that inflamed desires that are frustrated are dangerous. (I take it this is the significance of Paley's use of inflamed.) These cannot (remember infeasibility) be removed by "wisdom or the benevolence of government."
Now, if one thinks a revolution is warranted then perhaps thinking then, perhaps, it is natural to treat a warning about not facilitating the conditions of revolution as menacing ('minatory'). But if one thinks that even the most welcome revolutions are also dangerous/harmful to many innocent bystanders -- as they nearly always are --, then Paley's stance may well be thought humane, even moral.
More contextually, neo-Roman ideas were implicated in the revolution of the US then (1785) recently concluded. So Paley is clearly pointing out that neo-roman ideas generated the conditions of revolution. Now, none of us need to mourn the diminishment of British empire. But Paley's idea is simply that neo-Roman ideas are always dangerous to public order. This is why I call the 'political objection.'+
Notice that Paley takes his own political objection seriously enough to propose alternative principles that one can live by. So, while it may be true, from a neo-roman perspective that there is"a critique of our practice as insufficiently attentive to our principles," Paley is not an appropriate target of this complaint because he is changing the principles in virtue of their foreseeable effects. And Paley's stance is consistent because he embraces principles that (plausibly) are capable of delivering what he takes to be the end "rational politics." (That is compatible with noticing that labeling this 'rational' is a form of political rhetoric by making other ends seem irrational!)
One may well charge Paley, as one may charge many utilitarians, of being too close to the perspective of authority and power here. And, perhaps, Paley, is taking too much the perspective of his students (the future clerical and political elite). And one may also wonder if the rejection of revolution is, in context, a species of admirable gradualism (of the sort I attribute to Adam Smith) or just quietism. But Paley's particular charge is that neo-republican liberty invites permanent turmoil, if not, revolution.
Skinner could deny Paley's claim on empirical grounds. Perhaps Paley is wrong about the empirical effects of neo-roman liberty. One may also argue (on Machiavellian/Popperian grounds) that some kind of permanent tension is fruitful. But in so far as political theory is, in part, also the search of principles that lead to stable authority, and, thereby stable expectations that can generate what we may call the fruits of peace, Paley's objection instantiates responsible speech. For Paley's view is de facto (and here he echoes Hume) that on neo-roman grounds no legitimate government is possible in actuality.
* I myself would not call Paley a "classic liberal" and I think this matters to Skinner's treatment of the more knock-down objection. But leave that aside here. In addition, I think it is wrong to treat a leading textbook thinker as evidence of influence because in my view in this period, liberalism in Britain is still developed outside the universities. This changes with Green, Sidgwick, and Marshall.
+I don't think it is uniquely or even distinctly liberal to wish to avoid a revolution (cf. 1848).
**UPDATE: Mark Yellin has reminded me that James Davies uses the same passage in his famous (1962) paper Toward a Theory of Revolution.
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