who rules – The New American State https://www.thenewamericanstate.com Thu, 29 Oct 2020 09:42:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 Is it Important Who Rules https://www.thenewamericanstate.com/is-it-important-who-rules/ Thu, 30 Jul 2020 09:10:00 +0000 http://themecanon.com/booker/?p=1006 Unfortunately, the philosophical treatise with the most significant literary value, which became the most influential book in the political history of mankind, is Plato’s The Republic. I say “unfortunately” because The Republic is a masterfully created illusion. It suggests that it is possible to have a wise and good ruler who cares for the welfare of the state and who, through his own judgment, guided by his own ethical criteria, can adjudicate and govern justly. Plato suggests that this type of ruler is possible and that people should strive for a state structure that encourages finding such.

Creating the image of a ruler concerned with the good of society is the most dangerous political illusion. It has had a tremendous intellectual influence on a number of philosophers and political thinkers. It has provided the intellectual basis for legitimizing and defending all kinds of dictatorships and some of the most obscurantist political regimes. Can you recall the name of even one dictator who did not present himself as a savior concerned for the good of the people? I do not.

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]]> From “Who?” to “How? https://www.thenewamericanstate.com/from-who-to-how/ Thu, 30 Jul 2020 09:00:00 +0000 http://localhost:8888/20160403-Booker/?p=51 The question whose answer shaped the pattern of human behavior in all forms of states previous to the republic founded on written a constitution is “Who decides?”. After the first modern republican constitution and the establishment of constitutional monarchies, this question changed to “How is a given decision made?”

Even in imitations of republics – the so-called “democratic republics” in the former communist world and its remnants, or those in one-party and theocratic regimes, the question “How is a given decision made?” is more significant than “Who decides?” This is because the question of “how” is connected with the existence of different institutions and the division of power, where it exists.

The first known state in which the people tried to exchange the question “Who decides?” with “How is a given decision made?” was the Greek city-state of Athens, around 508 BCE. In the Constitution of the Athenians, written by Aristotle somewhere in the period of 330-322 BCE, three types of power are described – legislative, executive and judicial – which are also the basis of the present-day state.

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