The manner in which governments utilize political power shapes the political landscape of every society. From the outset, it is important to note that the functions of a government are dependent on many variables including the economic aspects, technological changes, environmental issues, communication advances, and international situations. Accordingly, the manner in which governmental power should be structured is motivated by the understanding of what politics ‘is’ or what it ‘ought’ to be. It is this understanding that informs the diverse perspectives among ancient and modern philosophers regarding whether governments should use their immense powers towards achieving order or justice or both.
Some of the ancient political thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates believe that governments should use their powers towards achieving social justice. As such, these philosophers advance the argument that governments should be led by people who are considered ethical and wise. They held that only those people who are cultured on the virtues of justice would be better leaders because they are likely to place the interests of the public before their own (Dooley 7). In particular, Plato in The Republic provides that leaders should acquire knowledge before assuming power because knowledgeable people are more likely to advocate for justice (34). According to ancient thinkers, governments can achieve social justice through using their immense political powers to eliminate injustices and promote respect to diversity in order to ensure that all people, regardless of their background, share a common humanity where they are treated equitably in support of their rights and fair distribution of community resources. These philosophers proposed that in a community that has achieved conditions of social justice people do not experience discrimination and their welfare is not prejudiced on the basis of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, political affiliations, or other socioeconomic circumstances.
Ancient political theorists like Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates tried to equate social justice with the notions of equal opportunities in a society. They believed that achieving social justice conditions within a society should be the utmost role of any government. Plato and Aristotle consider happiness as a measure of the existence of social justice within a society. They argued that in order for a government to achieve social justice it must use its powers to ensure that individual intellect remains dominant over individual appetites (47).
On the other hand, modern political theorists such as Niccolo Machiavelli, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, and Thomas Hobbes believed that social power, in comparison to justice, is the most essential aspect in politics because the most important role of governments is to maintain control over the subjects. These thinkers consider social power as the most important aspect in preventing civil disobedience and violence within a society (9). They argue that without a government, there would be no order and without order a society would deteriorate into chaos because people are selfish and competitive in nature. For instance, Hobbes provides that without a government, a state of nature is created and that in that state man can only achieve happiness by doing things that are self-serving in disregard to the interests and well-being of others (68). As such, these philosophers provide that the primary role of government is to promote security by preventing civil unrest. According to Hobbes, an authoritarian system of government is the best system where individuals yield all their power to a body politic so that the latter can then prevent disorder and violence in an effective manner (65). Hobbes insinuates that if every individual fails to surrender their political power to the government then it would not be able to carry out its core function, which according to Hobbes is to maintain order within the society.
The fact that the ancient and modern political thinkers agree that every individual has political right that they have to surrender to the government so that the government can use the power for the greater good everyone shows that individuals have the power to take back their rights when they perceive the government as not using the power for the greater good. Taking this as a point of departure, I agree with the rational that the ancient political advance that the primary role of the government is to use its political power to promote social justice. Without social justice, individuals will not be able to achieve happiness and this is likely to cause civil disobedience. Even though the government possesses immense political power, once the public is dissatisfied with its performance as far as promoting the well being of everyone through social justice, the people have the absolute power and there is nothing that the government can do when the people decide to overthrow it.
A good example to show that social justice is essential to maintaining social order is the 2011 revolt in Tunisia following Mohammed Bouazizi’s suicide after a police officer overturned his produce cart when Bouazizi declined to pay a bribe (11). The government of Tunisia, even with all the political power, was unable to prevent the public from revolting and eventually overthrowing it. What caused the Tunisian public to revolt was not because the government could not enforce order, but because the people felt that the government was not able to achieve social justice for the benefit of everyone. The subsequent revolts against governments in the Middle East and Libya reveal that the theory that the ancient political philosophers advance is spot on and that it is not until the government has managed to achieve social justice for everyone that there can be social order within the society.
Work Cited
Dooley, Kevin. Why Politics Matters: An Introduction to Political Science. Cengage Learning,
2014.
