government theory

Chapter 46 On Privileges

159．If the legislative and executive powers are divided in different persons (as is the case in all moderate monarchies and well-organized governments), there are several matters which should be left to the discretion of the executive for the good of the community. .For, since the legislator cannot foresee and prescribe by law all that is beneficial to society, the executor of the law, who has the power of execution, enjoys, by virtue of the general law of nature, the benefit of taking advantage of the law of nature in many cases where the domestic law does not provide for it. The right to the welfare of society, till the legislature can conveniently assemble to prescribe it.There are many matters beyond the law, which must be left to the discretion of the person who holds the executive power, and he must deal with them according to the requirements of the public welfare and interest.In fact, on certain occasions, the law itself should give way to executive power, or to this fundamental law of nature and government, that all members of the society should be protected as far as possible.

Because many accidental things can often happen in the world, in these cases, strict and rigid enforcement of the law will be harmful (for example, if the neighbor's house is on fire, the innocent person's house must not be demolished to prevent the fire from spreading), and the result would have been It is a commendable and condonable action of a person, but may make that person subject to the law because the law does not discriminate.The ruler should therefore have the power in some cases to lessen the severity of the law and to pardon certain criminals; for since it is the object of government to protect all as far as possible, no one, even if it can be proved that he does no harm to the innocent, Guilt can also be forgiven.

160．This power to act according to discretion for the public good, which is not prescribed by law, and sometimes even against it, is called a privilege.For in some governments the power to make laws does not always exist, and rapidity is required for execution, which would be too slow to act if the government were numerous; It is impossible for things to be foreseen, and it is therefore impossible for laws to regulate them all, and, if all conformity or all people strictly implement the prescribed laws, it is impossible not to cause damage; The executive power is given considerable latitude to deal with special matters not provided for by law.

161．It is a true privilege when this power is exercised for the good of the community, and in accordance with the trust and purpose of the government, so that it can never be challenged.For, if the privilege is exercised to a considerable extent for its original purpose, that is, for the welfare of the people, and when it is not manifestly contradicted by this purpose, the people will seldom or never be exacting or fussy about the details. , and privileges are not examined.But if there is a disagreement between the executive and the people as to the power claimed to be a privilege, the question is easily settled whether the tendency to exercise this privilege is to benefit or harm the people.

162．It is not difficult to imagine that, in the early days of government, the state was not much different from the family, either in numbers or in the number of laws; Almost all by privilege.A few established laws suffice, and the discretion and prudence of the rulers deal with the rest.But when feeble princes, through fault or deluded by flatterers, make use of this power for their private ends, not for the public good, the people are obliged by written laws to regulate those whom they consider to be unfavorable to them. privileges in every respect.In these cases, therefore, the people found it necessary to restrict by express provisions the privileges which they and their ancestors had bequeathed extensively to the sovereign, but which could only be employed by the sovereign's wisdom for what was right, that is, for for the benefit of the people.

163．It is, therefore, a very absurd view of government to say that the people trespass on the privilege when they enclose any part of it by express law.For by doing this the people do not deprive the prince of any right, but only declare that the power which they have not committed to him or to his ancestors without qualification is for their benefit, when he uses it for other purposes. , it was not their intention.For, since the welfare of society is said to be the end of government, no change made for this end can be regarded as an aggression against anyone, because no one in the government has the right to depart from this end, and only those who are not conducive to or obstructing change for the public good is a violation.Those who hold the contrary view, that the interests of the prince and the welfare of the society are distinct and separate, and that the prince was not made for that; and this is the source of almost all the evils and confusions that occur in monarchical government. .If this is the case, the people he governs are not a bunch of rational animals joined to society for their mutual welfare; Do are a group of lower animals under the rule of a master who feeds and uses them for his own pleasure and benefit.If human beings were really so irrational and unreasonable as to enter into society on such terms, privilege would indeed be, as some maintain, an arbitrary power against the people.

164．But if we cannot conceive of a rational animal, when he is free, subjecting himself to another in order to harm himself (of course, if he has a good and wise ruler, he may not think that in all cases the ruler If it is necessary or beneficial to expressly limit the power of the people), the privilege can only be granted by the people. In cases where the law does not provide, their rulers do things according to their free choice, and sometimes even contrary to the express letter of the law. Contradictions, to benefit the public, the people acquiesce to this approach.Because a wise monarch cares about the welfare of the people and does not want to live up to the entrustment entrusted to him by the people, so he will not feel too much privilege. This privilege is the power to benefit the people.On the other hand, a weak, fatuous and tyrannical prince often asserts a privilege which was exercised by his predecessors, which he rightly possessed by virtue of his position but which has not been prescribed by law, and which he intends to exercise at will. , to obtain or create interests distinct from public welfare.Thus he obliges the people to reaffirm their rights and to limit this power, but they are willing to acquiesce if it is exercised in order to promote their welfare.

165．It is only necessary, therefore, to read the history of England to see that the most virtuous and virtuous princes enjoyed the greatest privileges, because the people, noticing the whole tendency of their actions to the public good, did not care that he had no legal grounds. , but all actions done to this end, even if by any human weakness or fault (for the prince is a man like any other man) should be somewhat deviating from this end, so long as the main tendency of their actions is public concern. of.Therefore, since the people have reason to believe that they should welcome the actions of these monarchs on occasions where there is no law or contradicts the express law, they acquiesce to everything the monarchs do, and they also accept the arbitrary expansion of privileges by the monarchs. No complaints.They rightly conclude that princes here do nothing against their laws, because their actions are consistent with the foundation and purpose of all laws, namely, with the public good.

166．It is true, from the thesis that absolute monarchy is the best form of government, that such a godlike monarch should have arbitrary power, as God rules the universe with arbitrary power, because such a monarch has the wisdom and goodness of God. character.From this it follows that, to the rights of the people, the government of good princes often leads to the greatest danger; The standard of their privilege, that what formerly was only for the good of the people, became to them their right to do harm to them at will, with the result often causing strife, and sometimes disturbance of public order, until the people regained their former rights and so far as to declare that it was never really a privilege, since no one in society can have a right to harm the people; though it is quite possible and reasonable that the people do not To limit their privileges, which are only the power to pursue the public good without regulation.

167．The power to summon Parliament in England is a prerogative of the Crown, including fixing the exact date, place, and duration of its convocation; to exercise this power for the benefit of theFor, since the time and place when and where it will be most expedient to summon Parliament cannot be foreseen, it is left to the executive power to choose such ends as may be most conformable to the public good and most suitable to Parliament.

168．An old question about privilege would be raised, namely: Who is to judge whether this power is used properly?I would answer: There can be no arbitrator in the world between a privileged and always existing executive power, and a legislature whose summons is determined by the executive power; the people or destroy the people, there can be no judge between the legislature and the people.In this case, as in any other in the world where there is no judge, the people have no remedy but to appeal to heaven; for, to accomplish such an attempt, the rulers exercise a Their power (it is impossible to conceive that the people would agree to be governed by anyone for their harm) to do what they have no right to do.The collective of the people, or any individual, who is deprived of rights, or is governed by powers not exercised by rights, and who has nothing to tell on earth, has a right to appeal to heaven when they deal with this very important case.

Therefore, though the people cannot be judges on this occasion, in order to have a higher power to decide and pronounce judgment in this case by the organic law of society, yet they can exist by a law that precedes all express laws of mankind. And the law above it reserves for itself the final decision-making power that belongs to all human beings when there is nothing to tell in the world: to decide whether there is a legitimate reason to appeal to heaven.They cannot abdicate this right of decision, for submitting to another's power, which destroys one's own rights, is beyond the power of man, and God and nature never allow a man to give up on himself. so as to neglect his own protection; and as he cannot take his own life, he cannot give another the power to take it from him.Let it not be supposed that this will sow the seeds of perpetual confusion, for the people will not exercise their power of decision until the evil is so great that the majority of the people feel it and cannot bear it, and think it necessary to correct it.This is what executives, or wise princes, should ever guard against, it is of all things they most need to avoid, and of all things is the most dangerous.

(End of this chapter)