GOVT1641 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Totalitarianism, Free Trade, Natural And Legal Rights
6 May 2020
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Document Summary
The effort to systematically reflect on the nature and purpose of political life. Purpose - normative political theory: how social and political life should be. Nature - descriptive political theory: how social and political life are. Liberalism and the moral order of mutual benefits: The individual person is significant and an object of moral and political concern. Can"t treat people however we want to treat them. State is responsible of everyone in the state. Start to see society as existing for the mutual benefit of its individual members. Goals: (in medieval times) save souls bring them closer to god, (in isis and nazi) not mutual benefits but only benefit one group of people. Individuals are subject only to opinions and rules they give themselves. Protect individuals from the arbitrary exercise of power by subordinating it to laws. Individuals grant one another mutual entitlements, which also impose mutual duties. Liberalism splits the 3 institutional powers: executive, judiciary and legislature.
