POL101Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Wilhelm Von Humboldt, Communitarianism, Infimum And Supremum
Document Summary
The power of the kings was indeed limited, but it was limited by the magistrates. Their authority was as much religious as political; they took part in the actual administration of government, i. e. in the executive power. Thus their power, far from being simply a barrier against tyranny, sometimes itself became an intolerable tyranny. The military class the nobility had very arrogant and oppressive privileges. The people had no rights and no safeguards. Representative government is a modern discovery, the ancient peoples couldn"t feel the need for it, or appreciate its advantages. Their social organization led them to want a kind of freedom totally different from what representative government grants to us. Among the moderns even in the freest states the individual is sovereign only in appearance, though he is independent in his private life. His sovereignty is restricted and nearly always suspended; and if at fixed and rare intervals surrounded by precautions and obstacles he exercises this sovereignty.
