Rule of law and democracy in Europe I.

– The landscape changes quickly, you can’t really get used to it

– The roads are mild
– Temperate climate and geography, nothing is really extreme
– The proportions of Europe are more condensed
– Not many climate, not extreme- don’t need to accumulate in one territory
– 4 seasons by Aristotle: idea of rotating offices came from the rotation of seasons
– The natural borders within Europe often serves as a state border
– 3 out of 4 borders are water-borders
 Almost seems impossible to pinpoint/exist on the East
o Artificially drown by the Russian elite, later Germany, scholars, and everyone
agreed on the Ural
o Concentrates migration on the mainland
o Europe is a continent where it is really easy to arrive, but hard to leave
o Dense population with different kind of people what is also separated by
geography
o Constant turmoil, constant uphill – hard to built a top down political system,
hierarchy
– Coastal line of Europe: accelerates building relations, it is rather a bridge than a barrier
 Longest seashores
o Sea as a possibility, rather than barrier, make you see conquering a different
way
o Large population centre
o Big booster of GDP, tourism population, borrowing ideas
o More ppl have access to new ideas, products
 3th c. A.D: for Rome it was more profitable to use the sea for shipping, it was much
faster and cheaper
– The seas rather connect with other continents, than alienate
– Geobotany, hydrography of Europe
 Fresh waters, rivers, lakes – cities
 Thickest network of rivers (almost can get from any rivers to any other by shipping,
essentially sailable)
 The amount of sweet water available
o There was no need to build irrigation system, bc there are rivers
available
 Due to Eu being more like horizontal, in general there is a vast amount of plants what
you can grow basically everywhere
 Woods: seems to be an endless amount of wood for ships and houses
 Arnold Toynbee:
o Challenge and response
 The nature of challenges is important, than you are less likely to respond, bc
it seems hopeless, if it is easier, you might not put enough energy into it
 Big sea, but not hopelessly, cold, but not hopelessly.. – tackle the challenge,
but did not needed to put to much effort in it, needles to focus only to it
(prosperity of art)
2. Patterns of Power
– First pattern of power: Impossibility of empire
– It was hard to build an empire with a constant flow of people and turmoil
– Empire: top down structure, monolithic, integrated huge area, hierarchical system,
certain level of despotism (inherited from Babylonian…), leadership from one person
stand out
– First Empire: Alexander the Great, mostly the South part of it was in Europe, it was
mainly India, to Egypt
 Seleucus and Pbilemy empire
 Antigonos Monophtalunos : organised the European part after Alexander’s
empire felt
 For multiple millennials empire existed elsewhere, but Europe was a
latecomer in that
– Roman empire
 One city-state started to conquest the other ones
 The Roman project: The middle of the empire is a sea
o The sea is not thought as an unknown, it is rather a bridge
o High focus on Sea in IR, “On the free sea”
 Put Europe on the map
– The idea of imperialism survived
– Everybody tried to create in smaller attempts, renovation of empires (Charlemagne,
Napoleon, Hitler..)
 Usually lasted for one generation
– Holy-Roman Empire
 Wanted to grasp too much
 Three problems of it: not holy, not roman, and neither empire
 1648, Treaty of Westphalia
 Vacuum of power

– Second political pattern

– Fragmentation of political power
– Roman emperor- Antiquity
– two emperors- tetrarchs -Early Middle Ages
– HRE-Pope (non can survive without the other)-borderline on Early and High Middle
Ages
– Kingdoms (btw HRE-Pope, the kings had to really on both of them- the to provided
more ideologies, possibility thus strengthened the kings (to compete with each
other))
 Alanus Anglicus, Every king within his kingdom is like and emperor- full
sovereignity/authority
 Pope Innocent III. (the king is someone who not recognise anyone as a superior,
rex qui superiorem recquiscit)
– Early Modernity:
  The authority of the HRE is almost non-existent, instead princes, counts,
marques, count palatines
 Instead of Pope: Calvinist, Baptist, Lutherans, modern sovereign states

 Third pattern of power: concept of individualism

 Individualism had a certain resurgence in renaissance and enlightenment
 Reaching back to Antiquity, where idealistic view of looking at life, sometimes even
placing them above myth
 Specific position of individual
 On the borderline of antiquity and m idle age, Christianity
 Man was formed as a creation of God
 Societies were lead to individualism in late middle ages and early modern times
 Baltic sea and Black sea, west of Europe, 1680-1780 90% had birth, marriage and
death certificate
 (Political reality, absolutism, full control over the citizens). This is an example for
absolutism
 In the 20th century of Africa, the number was 3-6%
 How European special relation with individualism is effective to politics
 Concept of human dignity, legitimacy stands from ppl, not god, strength of
individual
 Bottom- up movements shaped Europe
o Interest and pressure groups were already established
 Estates of the realm: medieval orders, bourgeoisie, clergy… was part of the
order. Pressure in political sense
 Guilds, unions: exert pressure in an economic sense
 If you do not have a single authority, only in fragmentation, the authority of king
became somewhat accidental. Not sacred powers, but truly accidental
 Authority will be questioned
 Loyalty to the king was replaced by sth else, at least in the level of
emotions/sentiments with patriotism
 Practical sense: question what why should be loyal to that authority
 “Just be loyal to law/to the tradition of law”
 Rule of king slowly can be replaced by rule of law
o Consequence of the fragmentation of power

 Loyal to legal system, organise as many thing as can from bottom-up manner,
democracy, individual is important- shift away from antique democracy

1. The role of cities/city states

2. Political consequences of Christianity
3. Feudalism

4. Cities
 If the population is concentrated, with the old town, that can easily trigger rebel,
revolution…
 US, the central is the down-town with offices, does not trigger the new ideas
 Small ethicist governments , chief-dooms, tribes, or little unities-cities
 Hellas (5-4th century BC)
 Greece borrowed the idea from Mesopotamia
 High density of city states, and if one wanted to dominate, the coalition of the
city states prevented it
o Not in Mesopotamia, that’s why the despotic cities came to dominate
 Identity of city states, certain sense of plurality
 They start to organise different type of leadership and regime, none of them
could really spread, but bc of the closeness the idea could spread, and
ideologically might trigger comparative constitutional thinking – have a mixed
type of ideal regime
o Risk of experimenting was not too high
o Ideal climate of political experimentation, of thinking about the
perfect/ideal regime, comparative constitutional thinking
 Indonesian is also mentioned
o Not political influence
o Climate somewhat similar, and in the geographical sense too
o Proximity of different city states, but different
o The Greek inherited the writing from the Phoenicians, but that was not
present in Indonesia
 Didn’t have to repeat in generations, the results were written down in
Hellas
 Evolution of cities
 The Middle Age provide basis on contemporary cities
 Medieval European cities
o Usually encircled by a city wall
 Separate
 Could be linked to the birth of autonomous regions
 Control the Micro-climate
 Symbolic relevance, major legal relevance as well
 Collection of tax - build up your on army, be more independent
 Cities were considered to be free, no army in them, the authority of the
king and nobles were lost there
 For the king the sum was paid in one
 Distribution of welfare and wealth as you wish
 The market place of the city was hub of political fragmentation, conflicts,
revolts, revolutions
 Both political and entertainment centre
 Attracting different intellectuals
 Universities were established, and universities was a hub, and if the scholar
contributed, they might be differentiated by the name of the city, or his city
of
 Northern-Italy: San Gimignano (the towers stayed), Florence, Bologna, the
towers were privately owned by the aristocrats, that’s new that they lived
in the city, bc elsewhere they lived on the countryside
 The bourgeoisie destroyed that
  Once the bourgeoisie took over power in North Italian city states, they
could build upon the artistic and esthetical sense
 Rousseau created France based on his hometown, which was like a republic
 Outside Europe: Army within city limits, and they host the army of the king, the
riots could be managed easily

5. Impact of Christianity on Europe

 Morality
 Inquisition Christianity as a terror and a form of totalitarianism
 Concept of time
 Mircea Eliade: The Myth of the Eternal Return
o Cyclical time perception, everything will disappear and reappear again
 Christianity has a linear, not a cyclical perception of time
o Everything happens only once, increase the relevance of individual happenings
o Taking note of history and political history
o Predeterminate many things in European politics
 Antiquity and Christianity
 Ancients were pagan so it should be excepted for them to refuse this heritage
 Christianity realised the antique intellectual, the Roman empire itself own a
lot to ancient Greece
 Some of the ancient Greek scholars were the best
o Human dignity without the Bible, relevance of a single god, and the roots
of Christianity
o Rehabilitated or included in Christian teachings, by St. Augustine, Thomas
of Aquino
o Retranslation of some lost texts (by Plato, Aristotle…) in the 12 th century
 Rational arguments, the world makes sense if its originates from a
single Goodness
 The Seeds of the World
 New Testament: “My kingdom is not of this world”
 Transcendence, imminent
 Whatever happens in life is the doing of humans, after that is by the doing of God
 This world was given to humans to do whatever they want with it – provides
reason why can the European civilisation was ahead of the others
 The world is your own domain, where you can be almost like God
 Material culture, and also in political philosophy
 Investiture contest/Gregorian reform (end of 11th, beginning of the 12th c.)
 The pope has full authority in spiritual, the kings in the secular world
 The relationship btw the two entity was icy
 The emperor was like a divine entity, criticism is like blasphemy (criticising God)
 Re-introduction the solely political thinking
 Co-dependence in decision making, a compromise that the secular and spiritual
world was balanced
 If you cut the line btw god and the ruler- new form of legitimacy was needed
o Idea of social contract
o Authority would be deprived from humans
 o The Social Contract of Ppl – Giuseppe Mazzini in the 19th c.
 Before: Democracy- mob rule, tyranny of majority (and the Jacobin terror)
o France the eldest daughter of the Catholic Church
 The relevance of the Holy Trinity
 The defensive formula of heretics
 Against Arianism: flighted against them not only with force, but spiritually
 Break btw the Orthodox world, and Latin Christianity
o Patriarchs, the Pope of Rome was supposed to be one of the, but he became the
First among equals
o Filioque debate: The Holy Spirit comes from the Father
o Both the Father and the Son comes from the Holy Spirit
o Orthodox: Son and Holy spirit, derived from the father ( begets the Son,
breathes the Holy Spirit)
o Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed

o The Holy Spirit comes from Father and Son – Latin

 Resembles more the separation of power, the partition of political power
could be a consequence of the division of Christian church
Montesquieu borrowed ideas from his childhood theology book

6. Feudalism
 Represents the fragmentation of the power perfectly
 Benefice: the granted land
 Hierarchical situation, dependent of each other – vassality
 Fief: lord
 Vassal
 Immunity: safeguard private autonomy, draw inspiration from antiquity, but this
more structural, plus privileges, and natural rights
o Certain terms, and if they were breached, both had the right to terminate the
contract in case of felony, guarantee some kind of human dignity
 Middle Ages helped Contracts survive (from Ancient Roman Empire)

Ancient Contribution

Ancient Greek contribution

1. 5th c. BC – 5th c AD
 Focus on 5-4th c. BC (Classical Antiquity), and the millennia, end of Roman empire
2. Political philosophy – related to Polis
 Greek Colonisation
 600-800 city states established, around the 6th c.-5th c.
 Before that the Dark ages
 Before the Greek, the way they rationalised the birth of city states was derived
from myths, from divine origin
o Logos, logical story telling
 o Synoecism: moving in together. They moved together and decided upon the
laws and rules they want to live together
o Lycurgus: decision making, deciding on the laws on which they want to live
together
o The walls and laws are equally important in creating the cities
o Not just philosophy, but political philosophy was born
o First attempt to make sense of human society – arts (Homer, gods but also
political thinking)
o Herodotus: justification the Greco and the Persian way of rationalizing the
war. The west is democratic and better, the east is despotic
3. Late 5 , early 4th c.
th

 Socrates and Plato and Aristotle

 S. and P: from Athens, most democratic
 Socrates:
o Unhealthy level of obsession with laws
o Athenians regime was kind of Archaic, didn’t enforce the punishments
o It bc of laws that he basically reached everything in his life, so its his
contribution to drink the poison cup (bc of corruption of the youth)
 Plato
o He wrote everything in dialogue, and attributed to it to Socrates, but he
became very critical of the laws
o On the laws: tried to rehabilitate, but he couldn’t finish it (his longest work)
 Aristotle -Stagirite, outsider, so he was allowed to more criticism of democracy
o Educator of Alexander the Great
o Some of the most important patterns of Greek political philosophy
o The best way to characterise is the 6 foul of scheme (3 good and 3 bad)
o Best: absolutely/ideally, certain ppl under very specific circumstances, most
ppl for most time
 Rule of the one -Tyranny: private interest, evil twin of Monarchy
(public interest)
 Rule of the few: Oligarchy – Aristocracy
 Rule of the many: Democracy – Politeia
 Possibly Plato’s idea

 Medieval politics will be based on the 4 foul of schemes

 In reality only 2, but other time only 4 – had different types, but the 6 foul of
scheme is the most well-known
 3 or 4 modes to rule
o Political rule: the rotation of politics among free and equal ppl
o Regal or royal rule: power of an individual person rule over free but not
equal ppl
o Despotic rule: authority over slaves, over unfree and unequal ppl
o Economic rule: this is separated from the rest, very complex household, the
way you manage the family
o Different rules apply on a tiny group, family, than on the general
4. Which is the best mode to rule? (According to Aristotle)
 The ideal size community is around 10.00 ppl
 City-state is superior to territorial state
 Rule of majority could escalate into tyranny
 Ideal is mixed, and always based on particular characteristic (?)
 King (monarch)- Gerusia (some kind of aristocracy)- Ephorate (majority could rule)
 One way to go, good starting point
 There is nobody excluded
 Various classes had a say, class based distributed justice (nowadays is a functional
approach)
 Wide proprietary (has private property and responsible for it) middle- class was
necessary
 Who to deal with the lack of wide proprietary middle- class or if they erode?
 He found no solution to it
 Aristotle, Politics 3. Chapter 16.
 Rule of law: is like an immune system that protects democracy from itself
o Law should govern over everyone, if last someone is appointed, he is only the
guardian and servant of laws
 Theoretical framework was laid down
 But the Greeks didn’t have a legal system, there cases was decided on who paid for
the decision more
 (Avoid to misuse of law)

5. Problems of ancient Greek democracy

 Women, slaves, metics (foreigners) were excluded
 Those who can, could take part directly. Free for everyone to be present
 Structurally excluded many ppl
 Couldn’t really be expanded
 The politicians had a terrible death, even the former heroes, bc the mob (if angered,
could kill or exile them - Slave of the mob)
 Benjamin Constant (evaluated the democracy, 2000 years later, from external point
of view): tyranny of the majority, mob rule
 Problem of leadership
 Could be re-elected for long period of times, but short mandates
 No payment to these ppl, there was a small number of families what could “choose
this carrier”, few wealthy family
o Alcmeonids: main decision-making family
 Only the rule of law could be a defence structure – was not in reach, bc they did not have
a viable legal system
 Mitigating the dangers in the representative system – make democracy less dangerous
 Self-dangerous, the very basis of democracy could again themselves and would destroy
democracy itself, if the last level loose footing and listen/elect demagogues

 What happened to the proprietary middle-class?

 Around 400 BC, things changed, bc of wars they lost their territories and small family
business was replaced with big ones, factory likes with many slaves, with of course
one proprietary
 For example, right for vote was sold
 Vote in impulsive way, triggered by crazy ideas - era of demagogues

6. The political philosophy was disappearing following the fall of classical Greek period
 Politics were managed such a high level, that it was impossible to connect with it, top-
down classical imperial system
 The political community stopped being the ppl
 Aristophanes : ancient, classical Greek, Athenian playwright and comedian, political with
name dropping, with situation comedy
 Menander: Hellenistic playwright and comedian, no politics, mostly about character
comedy

Ancient Rome

7. Law
 Property was more valuable – imported
 The interpretation of law, later the legislation was more flexible
 First ones, who became self-conscious of law
 They understood what they were doing
 They understand that they understood law
 Definition of law
o Ius: originally meant physical space, room where the praetor sat
o In iure vocation: you were invited into the Ius
o In an abstract, the law
o Inuria: law in general (?)
 Differentiate among
 Ius: man made law, compulsory for everyone to follow- so they can be enforced
 Fas: compulsory in face of God, religious rules
 Mos: moral rules
 Invented legal philosophy
 Ius es tars boni et aequi: Law is the art of the good and the just

8. State
 First to attempt to define the state, concept of state form (major invention). The naming
of the state
 The name of the state
 Res Publica: matters of the public, public matters
 Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR): their imperial state

9. Structure of the Roman Republic

– The assembly was more deliberative, than discussive
– Magistrates
 More complex and define than in ancient Greek
 Imperium – act like past kings
o Consuls: replacing the king in some way, elected annually, 2 consuls
o Praetors
 Potéstas – minor authority, constricted to a certain field
o Quaestors -in charge of finances
o Censors- elected every 5 years, for 18months, their job is counting the ppl (to
know who should go where)
o Aedilis Curulis- architectures
 Dictators -in case of emergency
o Summum imperium – power what kings used to have, just for 6 months
 Senate
o Only patricians (aristocracy) could be part of it, they were addressed as the patres
(fathers of society)
o Plebeians: lesser ppl of the Roman society
 Tribunes of the plebs: initiatlly they could be the tribunes, and be part of the
Senate (addressed as the conscripts)
 Comitia
o Popular assembly, everyone could take part in it
o Functioned differently from the Athenians
o Could vote, but couldn’t address questions, not a place of discussion
o Rogatio: question, means you could vote with tiles for it (VR-uti rogas (as you ask,
I agree, A-antiquo (I prefer the old way, no)
o Tribunal: court of criminal law
 C- condemno
 A- absolve
 NL- non liquet (not clear)

10. Roman political and legal philosophy

– Political philosophy arrived relatively late, towards the very end of the republican times,
around 2nd c. BC
 Before that they were practical, they designed it, but did not think about it
 They could say it when the demise was near – natural law, you see it, at the very
point it was collapsing
o Werner Jaeger’s theory
– 3 what they borrowed from the Greeks, but they formed to much of it, that we call them
Roman contribution, Greco-Roman contribution
 Aequitas (equity) – concept of justice, méltányosság
o Equality before law
o Bona fides- good faith
 Look at the spirit of the law, not just the words
 Ius naturale (physei dikaion)
o In the middle ages its meaning transformed to be the predecessor of human right
o Origin: independently existing law, consonant with nature
 o Cicero was a great master of incorporated it into Roman law
 Ius gentium
o Praetor pergerinus – law of others
 Reconcile the Roman law with the others
o Common in all legal system, maybe that’s the natural law
o Comparative legal systems
o Important tool to build their empire
– Cicero
 Greatest political philosophy
 1st c. BC
 Transformed political philosophy
 From 4th until 19th AD, two philosophical book to what the students were exposed to
were the Bible, and Cicero
o Those he wrote about, we remember, the others we don’t
 Embraced tyrannicide
o A tyrant can be murdered – only time you are allowed to murder
o Borrowed from the Greeks, but represented that when the time of tyrants (in
front of the triumvirate, Caesar…)
 He was murdered bc he was seen as a threat bc of it
 Partially Augustus got him killed bc of the tyrannicide
 Plutarch (author): Aging Augustus- Augustus in retrospective recognized that he was
one of the greatest minds
 ‘”We are all servants of the law, in order to may be free” -the rule of law can set you
free
– Seneca
 Idea of regime
 Nero was the emperor in that time
o Ordered Seneca to commit suicide, bc Nero suspected that he was conspiring
against him
 Humans are absolutely and totally free – bc they can always commit suicide, last sign
of freedom
o Returning idea, György Konrád, The Visitor
 Writing in favour of republic during the imperial time
– Plutarch
 Last ancient author who used the 6 foul schemes
o 1st-13th c. mainly a forgotten topic
o He claims that always the rule of one is the best, bringing out the best from all
o The single power is being constrained by the ones whom their legitimacy is derived
from – problem

11. Shift to Middle Ages

– Collapse of the Roman empire
– Late imperial time, Cappadocian Fathers – holy trinity was designed (there was a 4 th one,
their sister the intellectual force behind them)
 Theologians
 St. Gregory of Nyssa
  St. Basil the Great
o Macrina is the sister of him and Gregory of Nyssa, played a crucial role in the
forming of the Holy Trinity. Provided important stimulus for the holy trinity
 St. Gregory of Nazianzus
– Founders of the West / Four Doctors of the Church
 St. Jerome
o Translated the Bible to Latin – Vulgate (from the original Hebrew text)
o Inspired St. Ambrose to enter the church ?
 St. Ambrose
 St. Gregory the Great
o One of the most influential Pope
 St. Augustine
o Bishop of Hypo
o Middle of the 4th century, died in the 420’s
o His book, De Civitate Dei
 The original sin (apple) is took compromised, that every human has this
original sin corrupted political regime so much that it would have slavery and
oppression. One solution is to have the city only full of love, which is not
available here, you can only hope for salvation and see the city there. Major
contribution of Christianity is a hope for the afterlife, so they are better than
the pre-existing were.
 Kind of consolation for the Sack of Rome
 410 AD
 Visigoths (Germanic tribes)
 Enter the capital of W. Roman Empire and basically robbed it
o Orosius, his student, give the knowledge for the ppl of the Middle Ages about the
Roman Republican era
o This time is better than the Roman Republic era bc back then they were pagans,
who worshiped fake gods, and on the way to demise – they were proud (Supreme
Vice) ppl and therefore bound to hell
o 5-12th c. this belief was prevalent
– Boethius
 First half of the 6th century
 Chancellor of the Theodoric the Great
o Ostrogothic king
 Aristocrat who served a barbarian king
 Extremely educated, part of the last generation who could read beside Latin, Greek
(Aristotle..) as well
o What he wrote down would survive, what he skipped would disappear for
centuries
 He did not focus on political philosophy
o De consolatione philosophiae /On the consolation of Philosophy
 Discussion btw him and philosophy, represented as a Lady (Allegory)

12. High Middle Ages

– In the meantime: Aiming at the renovation of the Roman Empire, but most of them only
could survive for maximum a few centuries
– 12 century Renaissance (was created in the 20th c. we can consider the times as waves of
renaissances)
– Provided the basis of the political revival ?
– Twelve century Renaissance
 The movement of translators
o Survived in the Arabic caliphates, and due to the movements the texts were
translated from Arabics
 Re-discovering of Roman law and the political ideas of Aristotle
 Roman Law
o 6th AD in E. Roman Empire, Justinian Code (the most important innovations of
the Roman Law) Digesta seu Pandectae (title of the compendium of the Laws)
 Decretists (of Bologna) of the 12th century, started to reapply the Digesta seu
Pandectae with their own comments
o Redefinition of the ius naturale, and it changed from cosmic law to
inalienable rights
o Linguistic changes
o Henry of Ghent, Huguccio
 Rex inutilis
o Based on Roman law
o What happens when the rulers were useless?
o In Roman Law: prelatus inutitis
 Canon law, some kind of right for the Pope to remove the king if
he feels like it
o Sancho IV. Was removed from his role, but could officially retain the title
of the Portugal King bc of the grace of god
o Limits the authority of the king
o Fourth Crusade 1202-1204 Aristotle’s new book appeared, translation
lasted for 60 years, bc they did not understand the terminology
(democracy, aristocracy)
o Thomas Aquinus commissioned William of Moebeke, the translation was
done by 1264, T.A. died 10 years later, so he could only comment on little
o The generations following him started to understand Aristotle from
late 13thc until the early 14th c. major translations of Aristotle

 12th century Renaissance — movement of translators

 Greek literature translated to Arabic in the Caliphates then taken back to Europe and translated
back
 Rediscovery of Roman law and Aristotle’s political philosophy in the 12th-13th century
 Roman law: Justinian codified Roman law in the 6th c. AD, which was rediscovered in the 12th
c. by the Decretists in the law faculty of Bologna (and added their own ideas)
 Redefinition of ius naturale: their most crucial contribution; natural law = there are
inalienable rights of humans — this is the primary source of the European idea of human
rights
  Rex inutilis (useless king): useless/harmful rulers could be removed by replacing them with a
governor (based on prelatus inutilis = useless officer) — tool in the hand of papacy; limited
the authority of kings; 1240: Sancho IV was removed from office this way
 Aristotle’s political terminology in Politics was hard to understand (long period of translation)
 People connected to the reinvention of Aristotelian political thought: Nicole Oresme, John of
Paris, Peter of Auvergne, Engelbert of Admont, Giles of Rome, Ptolemy of Lucca
 Engelbert of Admont

 Believed that the most important idea of Aristotle was the idea of mixed government —
monarchy, aristocracy and democracy is the best mixture according to him with Hungary as an
example

13. Giles of Rome

 Student of Thomas Aquinas
 His work: De regimine principum — genre: mirror for princes (addressed to the future French
king Philip IV)
 3 chapters: Ethics, Economics, Politics
 In Ethics: concept of lex animata (= living law) — “law is the lifeless ruler and the ruler is the
living law” — a single ruler is needed who embodies law itself (—> he was considered the
Medieval predecessor of modern absolutism)
 In Economics: based on Aristotle’s 3 modes of rule (regimen politicum, regimen regale, regimen
despoticum) — talked about them in the framework of the household
 Compares regimen politicum to marriage bc they equal partners, there is someone in
charge, rules are defined — but he does not mention the rotation of offices
 Compares regimen regale to the relationship of father and kids bc the ruler cannot be
chosen and no say in the creation of rules
 Compares regimen despoticum to slavery bc there is no freedom and no choice of ruler —
he believed that it was needed in the household but he condemned it
 In Politics: he is in favour of single rule bc the rule of many leads to penury, unrest and
war (which gives ground to despotism) and bc a single ruler can be limited more easily
— the ruler has to obey to the council and laws; the councillor system might step in the
place of the ruler if he is not suitable bc the continuity of the dynasty serves stability (3
reasons why hereditary rule is beneficial: the ruler needed to create a stable state so
that one day his son could take over; the one who inherits power is socialised around
power; shows stability, foreseeability)
 Politics has a broad meaning bc of him

14. Ptolemy of Lucca

 Student of Thomas Aquinas
 His work: De regimine principum (different book; published under name of Thomas Aquinas)
 Goes against Aristotle (diversion from the 3 modes of rule) and Saint Augustine (turns his
narrative on its head and defends the Roman republic)
 Used Thomas Aquinas’ authority to make Europe believe in republicanism
 Italian patriot, to be protected against the king – first sign of nationalis,
 Catholic, but republicanist

15. Royal authority limitations

 1000-15thc. Royal authority was curbed, political system(?)
 Golden Bull 1222
 Magna Carta 1215
 The King cannot do everything against the nobility
 Major attempt to protect private life was on the agenda
 Assemblies, estate realms, national assemblies limiting the royal authority, (CR- Sabor)
 Wide system of immunities, privileges
 Protection of guilds
 Protection against arbitrary trials
 Collapse of the authority of the Pope and the emperor
 Crisis in the HRE as well, ironically it grew bigger (transatlantic domains too)
o Too big to manage, bloodiest war after reformation
 The religious wars were the final event
 France, the war of three Henries
o General bloodshed, and unsure who has the political authority
o Spain could dominate it
 British attempt to take the hegemony out of its hand failed, bc France took the role
 Structural and strategic luck on the French side to dominate on the land and on the
sea too
 Britain preoccupied with domestic issues, one century before France, and more
years before the rest of the countries
 The idea of sovereignty was born
 Counterbalancing reality of the early modern era
 Remedy against demise
 Political realism was put on the table
 Machiavelli
o Prince
o Detach from spirituality (otherworld, religion)
o Its good if a ruler is straightforward, honest…, but dangerous if he cannot appear as
merciful, straightforward, good…
o Only political history, he doesn’t try to understand the dynasty, he only tries to see it
o Implemented by the 17th century, and absolutism
o Remedy against general disintegration
 Absolutism
 French took the part of whoever was in the interest of the state, religion didn’t matter
 Reflected on Machiavelli’s idea
 Rodent’s sovereignty, centralize as much power as possible
 GB, the concept that cannot be divined, but from ppl, was implemented for the first time in
GB (same time when FRA absolutism was on agenda)
 POL created a territorial republic
o Long-run: paralyses of the state, any noble man could veto anything. Suicidal attempt
to do that, when all the surrounding states did the opposite
 Roots of enlightenment appeared
 Era of classicist Europe (17th c.), precondition of enlightenment, so we can conclude that
absolutism as the precondition of enlightenment
o FRA noticed it first, saw the danger of autocracy
o External constricts disappeared, ppl need an internal one, check and balances within
the system
 Main goal for enlightenment scholars

16. Enlightenment
 Pierre Chaunu (French historian, about intellectual revolution, humanity??, 20 th c.)
  1637-1687
o The school of the method
o The principles of philosophy (Newton)
o More relevant than any other periods, but two can be measures with it
 5th c. BC – Greek philosophy
 1897-1860(??)
 Thomas Hobbes
 1651, publishment of Leviathan
 Social contract
 Political authorities born out of social contract, monopoly of aggression is handed over to
the state, as long the ones in charge keep the social contract in mind
 Had a chance to travel and see the different political systems and insight
 Starting point of enlightenment of political thinking
 John Locke
 Separation of powers
o Legislative
o Executive (judges belong to them)
o Federative (foreign affairs, how the colonies is dealt with…)
o Separated based on functional, not class
 Descartes
 Methodology based on political science
 D’Alembert: Encyclopedia
o Every intellectuals had to have a copy of it
o Entry of Peace: peace is the normal way of being, war is a disease
 Elite, ruling classes- they are able to protect against foreigners, the war gave their
legitimacy
 Anonymous
 Montesquieu typical Westphalian thinker
 Rousseau
 Social contract from Hobbes, redefined it with that the s. c. is derived from the ppl
 Brought back democracy as a concept, at the level of intellectual discourses
 As a viable political option, positive conceptionalisation of it
 Once his ideas is implemented during the revolution, it’s the same as during the Athens,
only used as a tyranny of the majority
 Emmanuel Kant
 Individualism, ethics, morel philosophy
 Universalist (who never left the city where he was born)
 Rechtsstaat, legal state, the duty of the state is to provide you the right
 To perpetual peace
o Democratic peace theory
 He used republic, where not everyone has the right to vote, not democracy in the
sense of R.
o Spread representative regimes in EU, will bring peace
 Ppl would change the governments who would go to war
 States welcome each other’s citizens, a league of nations is necessary

17. Contribution of the 19th century

 European superiority at its peak
 Napoleonic wars, Opium war
 First World War and the role of women
 Voice of women became decisively stronger, more effect
 Industrial revolution transformed the experience of the everyday life
 Social question (working class crammed in big cities, others could be wealthy fast)
 Social question, sickness which need a cure
 But Rudolf Steiner argued that the problem of the 19 th century was that they thought about
it like sickness, but is rather like hunger, that need to be fed, taken care of regularly
 International politics, system of congresses peaceful ways of solving problems
 Pandectists
 German enlightened scholars of the 18 th and the 19th century, and tried to adjust the Roman
Law to todays situation
o Even more meticulous than the ancient romans
o Add something new to it
 Criminal laws, having a written constitution, legal procedural law
 Departments faculties of laws, genres of law what’s Structure mirrors the idea of the
Pandecticts
 Putting into words what Aristotle said that Men should be only the guardian of the law
o Constitutional court
o Put into force in the 20th century
 Theoretical contribution
 Mass-political parties were born in the (end) 19 th centuries
 Trade unions appeared during this time as well
 Marxism, Socialism
 Conservatism, Liberalism
o French revolution
 Idea of nationalism
o Before that, primary circle was the estate, the class you belonged to, religious affiliation,
shared language
o Nationalist symbols, national parties
o Mobilization, development of transportation
 National awakening meant a common language in order to participate in politics
o Literacy, and national education – demos
o Speaks the same language and could debate about politics
 Press and Propaganda
 Boom of literacy
 Press as two-edged sword
o Successfully voices the wishes of the ppl, and it can be heard in political circles, ppl can
react to it – revolution
o In case they own various types of media, they are able to influence the news –
propaganda
 Press as the forth branch of power
 Emancipation of various social layers
 Abolishment of slavery, serfdom
 Serf, women, foreigners (stateless ppl, (Jews on the verge))
 Foreigners, dealt first theoretically, than practically – citizenship
 Serf: Relevance of agriculture was decreasing
o Voice their opinion
o Major issue on the agenda
 Women
o Industrial revolution provided jobs where physical strongness was not really needed
o Christine de Pizan
  Published her book in 1404, The book about the city of women
o Reaction of Jean de Meun’s book
 Collective female consciousness, female standing up against issues
o Ancient Greece: derogatory way, binding to men
 Generally very problematic, exemptions like militarized countries, where the men
were constantly in war
o Ancient Rome
 At least the matrona had some kind of saying
o Mary Wollestonecraft
o Christianity
 The bargaining potential of women increased
 Passive and only subject of divine intervention?
 In the core of religious core
 Compared to virgin Mary
 Chivalry culture of the medieval ages
 Nuclear family was born
o Depiction of the holy family
 Virgin Mary is more important than the father
 Female political representation is only after the rise of Christianity
o Empresses
o First influential female appeared in the middle ages
 Hildegard von Bingen
 Saint Catherine of Siena (most influential diplomacy, political organizer in the 14 th
century)
 Abélard and Héloise
o Real life caracters, monk/teacher and his student
o A. had to be castrated, but they exchanged letters even after that, intellectual
attachment as well
o Women have power to reject, and be with however they want
o The structural changes enhanced the role of women
o Importance of physical work decreased, and women could take social activities
 Philippe Ariés (medieval)
o Huge gap btw sociological and actual death
o Changed with enlightenment
o Once you stopped being able to do physical work, you were isolated and
forgotten
 Organization of salons in France, highly regarded in the society (19 th?)
o Only women clubs were established
o General suffrage of the 19th century, women rights present all the time
o Feminist movements could come up with bargaining potentials, and by the 1910s-1920s, the
general right to women were introduced after the WWI.
 Switzerland the last in Europe, fully in the 1990s

18. Constitutional court right after the WWI.

 Czechoslovakia, Austria
 Liberal democracy in the air
 Weimar Republic – way to fragile
 2nd Poland Republic(?)
 Hungary was an exception
 Representative regimes, liberal democracies, and then all collapsed and started to show
authoritan directions
 League of Nations
 Strong movement to build a pan-European regime, after Kant’s ideas
 Much more balanced social and political classes were needed
 Anglo-Saxon realization: more neutral way is needed, state only provides the framework for
equality, protection of minority, material justice proof (not represents the state, guarantee the
basis of formal justice, reliability), more emphasis was based on the separation of power, human
rights became crucial important, before at hoax treaties to guarantee, after inevitable human
rights for everyone on the agenda, HR courts were created (individuals from the state can turn
to), the sovereignty, the power of the state was somehow limited. Attempt to build up some kind
of cooperation btw the states (originally coal and steel communities, EU was different than all
those before, it was created organically)

After WWII.

1. After WWII. regimes

 Interwar period was needed to what to avoid, failed attempts -food for the post 1945 order and
ideas
 Late 1950s until late 1980s: regional peace in a global system of war
 Trust first, then treaty
 UN- without mutual trust, so VETO was added – almost total failure on the peace project
o Minimalize its efficiency, to prevent it to be too strong, didn’t trust in the structure, bc
they did not trust in the other
 Captured the benevolence of the ppl
o Germany -economic help
o France- free from Nazism
 Borrowing idea from Anglo-Saxon systems, especially US
 What they have that is lacking in EU, how the A.S. legal system to be interjected into the law
-rule of law
 The state should be neutral – need to borrow
 Human dignity, economic growth, capitalism is the most compatible, 1989 and 1990s most
livable days? The best regimes are democracy and capitalism
 Peak of liberal democracy, and the concept of rule of law and democracy
 Bottom up organization system/elements
 could deliver success
 Yugoslavia
o Authoritan regimes
 Hope that the recipe found after 1945, could be spread, hard and could be dangerous if you
just copy and paste (Athens- Jacobin terror) – hope was still there
 Theoretical attempt to find the best year: 1989 (there was hope)
 Attempt to find a balance btw private and public law
 Capable state and private autonomy, functioning domestic policies, private authority – rule
of law

2. Negative things
 Important precondition: implemented within the state (functional sovereign state is needed) for
rule of law
 Actors above the state, curbing the state, external check
o International organizations, question the sovereignty of ppl
o Rise of large companies
 Before internal curbing constrains
 o Rise of municipality
o Territorial integrity
o Transnational terrorist
 Private militia was set up
 Monopoly of aggression questioned
 City-states are on the rise (NY, Tokyo might became de facto independence)
 Territorial integrity and sovereignty questioned
 Westphalian system is not there anymore, after 1945, is more comparable to middle age –
Neo-medievalism
o Functional states
o Now in IR billions of actors(transnational web of criminals, private militia, city state,
NGOs..)
 Erosion of sovereignty – challenge of rule of law and democracy, because it happens
in the state
o Catholic idea of natural law in secular form
o Hard power: catholic church, multi-national companies

3. 2010s crisis of liberal democracy

 Illiberal democracy of Hungary
 (cheats in vote in the US)
 Referendum of Brexit
 Financial crisis of 2008 as a final cause
 US being seen at the verge of collapse, decreased the ‘value’ of rule of law
 Questioned social-democratic parties
 Questioned the position of the middle class
o Flat, decreasing income after 1945, after that ever-growing income
o After 2008, flat or decreasing income -weakening of the middle class
o Well-proprietary middle class, base of democracy in Antiquity
 Lost wealth, sold their votes
o New parties were organized, to channel the frustration of ppl in the way it is suitable
themselves
o Societal consequence, as a response, political parties popped up (left or rightest parties)
 Sovereignty of Greece was put into brackets after 2008 -otherwise the collapse of the Eurozone
 Austerity measure were to introduced -votes did not matter
 Troika (IMF, EU central bank) dictated what to do
 Global causes but there in EU too (above reasons)
 Russian influence
 In the 2010s Russia came back from that
 Putyin ready to be in power
 2 fold(Russian hard power, Russian soft power)
o Soft:
 Putyin visited Hungary more often in 2010, than any SU leader during the Cold War
(frequency of visits) -still welcome in the west
 Parties funded by Russia (not necessarily in power, capital, infrastructure (Jobbik)) -
soft power tool
 Russian advisors, ideas appearing(soft)
 Propaganda and disinformation (soft)
o Some kind of cult of personality
o Demising them and their values – make it look seem ridiculous and
dysfunctional the rule of law, Anti-West propaganda
 o Grain of truth then distort it and form as a propaganda
o Hard: Ukraine
o Sharp power (btw the two): energy policy
o Meddling with democratic elections (soft tool, hard consequences)

 Russian propaganda video (2015)

 A-typical propaganda: tries to project strong Russia
 Officially not from Russia, but “independent channel’
 Satyr(?)of the Ukrainian uprising (?)
 Sense of superiority (military, cultural, moral)
 Pride is an important element
 Reflect the current happenings
 Far-right view
o Does who destroy everything- Western values
o Russia is the builders
 Dramatic, fierce, made in the language of video games, attracts certain generation
 Heroic edge, 19th c. attitude – nostalgic
 Russia state is against demonstrations -dangerous, destructive
 History was good regardless what happened
 Migration crisis
 Existential crisis
 The assimilation, the melting point did not turn the way like in US
 Germany -Turkish workers
 France-former colonies
 Integration and assimilation
 Fear of terrorism
o Often linked to Islam
o Separatist terrorists too, but not that covered
 General existential crisis
o We are not the majority anymore, change of rules
 Parallel societies- the integration did not go smoothly
 Economic integration varies from country to country
 Depict threat, and politician to save them from that with anti-migrants
 ‘The easiest to fear is the unknown’
 Nationalism
 Civilization crisis
 Autocracy-quick answer, one person, can be destructive
 Democracy-slower answer
 Demography
o Aging population
o Demographic cycle is downwards
o Immigrants have way more children
o Until Napoleon, demographical and economical cycle was moving the same
o From the collapse of the Roman Empire until the 1900s(?)
o Kondratiev cycle: faster change of economic cycles
o 1800-1900: EU population doubled
o In 1960s, in W.EU stopped, fertility rate dropped bellow 2
o Eastern and . EU: 1980s-1992
o Sluggish change
o EU is surrendered with countries where it did not slow, nor really stopped
  Hardest hit by climate change, wars
 Until 1980, there was no correlation btw GDP and happiness
o TV -compare everyday life
o Structural cause of migration
 Beneficial ways of globalization (tourists), negative (migrants)
o Attract tourists, keep the migrants out
 Migration within the EU too
 1980s, a-typical migration
o Why wait for the liberalism to happen, when they can go somewhere where it is
already present?
o 2007-2018
 3.5 million left Romania, it became the 2nd country with most migrants after Syria
 (Ppl who are against the politician, already left)
o Institutionally hard to vote from abroad, easy from diaspora
o Dissolved the ppl, and elected for himself one who supports him
o Imbalance in political representative
 Representative democracy and migration
 Pioneers: ready to work, learn, risk…
 Trust in the state: The state is strong enough to educate and prepare them for what the state
needs
 Geopolitical strategy:
o Merkel really did not have much chance
o Middle east accumulated in the Balkan with the Hungarian and Austrian fences/walls
o Why not stop at Greece:
 In Greece Germany and EU were regarded as dictators (bc of the economic)
o Would led to a Grexit
o Welcoming policies, more humanitarian : anti-thesis of Orban

 German propaganda
 National values
 ‘proud not being proud’-ambiguity
 Playing with stereotypes
 Tries to be funny
 Approach was very different
 More problematic view regarding the history, (‘they were stupid’)
 Propaganda
 States communicate with each other
 John Lukacs: propaganda instead of politics, infotainment instead of news
 Radical different take on political discourse
 Liberal democracy- quality discourse is not present
 Its hard to maintain the quality of it, and thus the element of liberal democracy
 Concept of neo-medievalism
o Peak of literacy: after the WWII until around 1960s, and with the rise of TV the image
took over written news
o Umberto Eco: cultural type of neo-medievalism more and more ppl get informed
regarding beliefs, and politics through image (TV, mems, videos)
 Less complex thoughts
 Middle age: fresco, sacred scripts
o Language
o Position of English
  Similar to Middle Ages -Latin
 Discourses, important stuff
 In a language what most of the ppl are not native
 Structure is similar to the one of the middle age
 Cultural leg of neo-medievalism, could have a great effect on political discourse

19. Brexit
 2014, Scottish referendum to leave the UK or not
 In the mid 1970s already a referendum to leave the EU
 Geopolitical clash with France , refuse to join
o Since 1967, vetoed twice
o Joined in 1973
 60% sth to stay
 Labor party for leave, conservative to stay
o BBQ, the British were satisfied with Thatcher’s action (?)
o Colonial empire on the verge of collapse (all members of the EC)
 Former empires to keep their power by pulling their sovereignty together
 UK, only one way to maintain global position is to join the EU
o Neo-liberal economic policy, to cut back taxes, lower unemployment benefits and
breaking down the trade union
 Conservative to leave, labor to stay
 1983: labor lost the election with the promise to vote against the EU again
 Middle of 1980s, the labor party left this project, and for like 6 years not addressed by
anyone
 1990s, the UK Independent Party increased popularity in the later year
o Nigel Farage: 1999-2020
o Putting the British government to organize a referendum
 David Cameron campaign: in and out referendum by 2017
 Organized by 2016
 Vote leave: too much spending to the EU, what could be spend to healthcare (NHC)
and for the state, education -life would be bigger
o 350million ponds /week for EU
o “I would have never made that claim” -N.F. the day after election
o Big surprise that it actually happened
 For stay
o Scotland wants to stay
o High level of customs would be introduced, the small and medium size
enterprises would fall
o Financial HQ in London, many banks would move (they did so to Colone)
 ‘You were only supposed to blow the bloody door off’
o One of the most famous slogan after the Brexit
 Campaign and false info
 Everything borrowed from UK, when this actually happened there, what would happen with
EU
 Oldest democracy in EU
 The campaign is too similar to what happens in E.EU.
 Péter Tölgyesi
o 2015-2016, Orban could be the future- scary
 Understanding the problems of Hungary, the W. has to concentrate on it because that could
happen with them as well
 800 mentions of Orban vs 120 with the PM of NT
 October 2016
 (physical) Fighting in the EP
 Two members of the UKIP (who just won why they were created)
 Depths of the crisis is illustrated by this
 Effectively left in January of 2021
 Already in the beginning of the year
 Food and gas shortage
 Problems with supply chain
 Especially hard hit with the Brexit and Covid
 Bankruptcy
 Importance of GB in the democracy
 Magna Charta 1215
o Nobility: You cannot be taken into prison without verdict
 John of Salisbury
o 12th century
o Policraticus -his book
o Tyrannicide is fine
 Henry of Bracton
o On the laws and customs of England
o Put a bridle on the king, the bridle is the law
o Supremacy of law is emphasis here
o The ppl sit on the King as a horse
 Bill of Rights
o Inspired by the glossators and put it into action
 Habeas Corpus ACT -1679
o You must have the disposition over your body
o Generalization of the Magna Charta, nobody can be taken into prison arbitrary
 John Locke
o Original theorist of the separation of power
 Albert Venn Dicey
o In the British system where the Parliament is the highest power
o Referenda as an autocratic and manipulative tool
o In general understanding it can be really dangerous, but there some cases (like with
Switzerland) is right
o Extremely big referendum are dangerous to vote
 Parliamentary sovereignty
 Elected ppl to vote for them in issues which are to complex for them to understand and
judge
 3 referendum in the history of GB, 2 of them in the 2010s
 Referendum: one way to avoid responsibility in direct democracy
 Especially if the public is not informed correctly and sufficiently
 Tool to manipulate ppl (propaganda)
o Napoleon invented it, to manipulate the public bc the one who ask the question has the
more chance to win it
 Could be the death/paralyze of the EU, or liberal democracies
 Not the exit referendum, but the general ones are the most dangerous
 You cannot compromise or negotiate with the final result of the referendum
 Popularity of the EU was on a rise after the Brexit

20. EU
 What actually the EU is
 Supranational/international organization
 New kind of a Bund, like a German style federation
 Confederacion Nacionale -France
 Transnational consociation
o Consociation democracy -like in Belgium
 Empire: post-colonial empire, Neo-medieval empire (like the HRE was)
o Fundamental contradiction with the general consensus of the empire
o Very difficult to build an empire after the fall of Roman Empire, regardless there were
attempts
o One entity and they tried to invade the rest of EU from their HQ to build a top-down
way – war is attached to it
o Did not last long, at least not as an empire
 Napoleon, Hitler -few years
 By empirical time, it is a longstanding
o Very idea behind of EU was a peace project, perpetual peace
 Since Erasmus, St. Pierre to Kant, how to reach peace
o Signing a document once and that’s it -liberal narrative
 Very naïve idea
 They felt that it is wrong, but no solution
 This is how the balance of power born -more political narrative
 4-5 powers, when some becomes too strong, the others
counterbalance them
o Pentarchy
 Most advanced attempt to form a peacekeeping entity
o Built from bottom up
 Mechanical vs. organic
 Natural sciences idea
 The two former strategics were not followed
o Inspired by the physics of Newton
 Multi-cellular level of organization
o Bottom up, organic development
o Pasteur
o More stabile than anything else
o Organic, step-by-step way
o If its not working, leave it behind
o Cooperate in spheres what you are interested in, certain level of trust in necessary
o Late 1980s, 1990s, early 2000s great deepening of the EU
 Functionalism in IR
o Try to react to the changes and conditions, build cooperation where is the most
beneficial
o Sectoral organization
 After ECSC
o Idea of EDC -did not work bc of lack of trues
o After 1956, they realized they have to build a tighter and more extended cooperation
 GB and FRA not the biggest players
 Common Market
 Developed through coups, everything happened in secret
 Birth of the European Council
 Luuk Van Middelaar: The Passage to Europe
 o The evolution by coups is explained
 Stella Ghervas: Conquering Peace
o Enlightenment, balance of power
 Democratic deficit
 EP has very limited authority, hardly can do any legislation, too weak
 Representation of the EP
o Treated as a second order national election, can protest, the turnout was falling until
2019 (since 1990)
 Same issues are raised as in domestic ones, not common European ones
 Not much meaningful event in the EP, bc the lack of common language and political
backdrop culture, lack of demos
 The executive has unlimited power in the EU, at home the parliament limits
o The strength of executive is way bigger than at home
 The EC has closed session
 To distant from the voters, cannot engage with them (and believe they stand with them)
 To complicated for the general public to understand
 Difficult to find the separation of power
 Voters cannot recognize the political power -Hard to label as democratic
 Counter-argument
o Most democratically elected politicians
o Justification for doing there job
o They can vote them out
o How to representative this many states if not this way
 The standards are wrong, way we measure the EU with categories what are for
states, if we cannot agree on what the EU is. Not-Westphalian entity, with
Westphalian bias and standards
 Why it is not a state?
o 20-30% of the GDP from the states to federal level to Washington
o The same with EU is 1%
 Agreement that the sovereignty lays with the member states
 Post-state or pre-state
 Pre-state what would evolve with federalism
 European Parliament
o Only democratic element of the Eu, democratic but only in a primitive way
o Represents the individual citizens
 European Council
o Diplomatic element
o Member states
 Commission
o The EU itself
o Monarchic element, but bureaucratic
o Mixed-constitution
o One entity representing the many, one representing the few
 Supranational: Commission plays the key role, the states are not free
 Infranational: lobby, NGOs, state has some freedom-EP
 International: the state is absolutely free -EC
 Pre-modern entity, not a Westphalian one
 European society it is in a very primitive stage
 Only major entity that it is able to shift form (single entity -to put incredible economic
pressure on the others), in the UN GA many entity ( EU 27, US 1, CH 1)
  Idea of federalizing the EU is a wrong idea

21. Illiberal democracy

 European Council: has a short term way of thinking of political terms (only 6months)
 Orban as ‘a bad guy, but their guy’
 Longest serving PM (with the one in NL?)
 The EC won’t hammer them bc of the problems
 The one who can change the person, is the ppl of the country
 Strongest influence in modern Hungarian history, and in European and Western politicism
 Coalition of illegitimate democratic countries
o Attempt to build something more global
 Fareed Zakaria: the rise of illiberal democracy
 Democratic in a different sense
 Constitutional liberalism + democracy
o Constitutional -Romans
o Liberalism -Greek
o Separations of church, power – traditions through the history
o GB and most of the European states the constitutional liberalism was present,
even before the democracy
 Rule of Law
o Not democracy has a long continues life, but the rule of law is
o Constitutional liberalism is the rule of law
o Liberalism: only the rights, but not the obligation
o Rule of law emphasises both the rights and the obligations, it’s a more neutral
term, express more
o Rule of law is more difficult to spread, how do you see if the separation of power
is present?
 Make democracy safe for the world
 Orban’s speech of 2014
 Orban is the first to say that the Illiberal democracy as a positive thing
 Transformation of the country, from the end of the SU
 Shifts emphasis, that 1989 is not matter anymore, 2008 is the new starting point
 WWI, WWII, collapse of the SU -political dates
 2008 -economic crisis (could have compared it to the Great Depression and other economic
changes)
o Rhetorical reasons
o To legitimize what he is doing
o New ways of organizing communities, need to reinvent the states
o Most competitive states are not liberal democracies
 Singapore, China, India, Turkey, Russia
o They are not European
o A static views of the states
o Dynamic picture:
 India borrowed democracy, became one of the biggest democracies
 China: not ended communism – injected capitalism into it
 Singapore, not a democracy, but the rule of law is there
 Russia: attempted it, but not successful
 There is some western influence, many of them modified, but originates
from the liberalism what he wants to change
 Sex, violence, corruption – three problems with liberalism
o Sex – LGBTQQ+
o Violent protests
o Corruption-
o The problem with political liberalism, but it’s an intentional misinterpretation that this
why the liberal democracy should end
 He didn’t really does what he said
o Neither of them is main importance
o Separation of state and church, of power
o Protection of ethnicities
o He did what Zakaria wrote, not what he said