Political Philosophy and Social/Economic Development

1. The classical political philosophy has not directly addressed the question of economic development. It is with the liberalism and Marxism political philosophy, primarily of the 19^th century, that issues relating to economic development came to attract the political- philosophical interest.

2. The classical political philosophy nevertheless concerned itself with themes that are relevant to our modern understanding of economic development. Understanding of the state was central to classical political philosophy. Why do people belong to a state? What is it that makes the membership of the state necessary and useful? What is the relationship between the state and the citizen? Are some of the key issues that Aristotle, for example, examines in his Politics. In his ‘organic theory’ of political community, Aristotle viewed the state as the highest community of the people in which the ethical ideal of good life could be best realized. In realizing the highest goals in the ethical life, citizens in the Aristotelian political community are ‘active’ citizens who directly take part in running the ‘public affairs.’

3.  In another stream of classical political philosophy, the key question examined was: why is it that people obey the state? In the social contract tradition of post-medieval Europe, this question was answered by answering another question: Under what circumstances did the state come into being? Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau presented slightly different versions of the story of the state’s origin, arguing that the state was created by human beings to overcome difficulties of not having a state. In Hobbes’ theory, security and protection from insecurity and danger were the fundamental motivations for the human beings to establish a state. For Locke, security and freedom were the key goals of state as a political society.

4. It is the liberal political philosophy that provided most of the categories of thinking for ‘development’ that we are familiar with. Liberalism emerged in the context of growing capitalism in Europe. It provided philosophical categories to interpret the nature of social and political world, the economic behavior of society and the relationship between the state and the citizen. The basic unit of analysis in liberal political philosophy is the ‘individual.’ The society if composed of individual, ‘autonomous’ citizens with free will. The citizens are freedom-seeking, right-bearing individuals, the protection of whose rights and freedom is the fundamental duty of the state. Protection of individual rights and freedom, in the liberal thinking, is the guarantee of freedom and rights for the entire society. As Mill argued, freedom of the individual is necessary for social development.

This political idea of liberal individualism has its economic version. The economic organization of society should be one that enables the individual freedom of choice. The economic spheres is a ‘market place’ where the freedom of choice is guaranteed in the behaviour of perfect competition of buyers and sellers. The state should not interfere in the behaviour of the economic laws of the market place. The idea of ‘free market’ is thus central to the liberal economic philosophy. In this approach, a free-market is the best mechanism to ensure the most efficient allocation of resources. Free market is also supposed to guarantee economic opportunities, efficiency and equality.

5. Utilitarianism: A branch of liberal political philosophy, utilitarianism came out with the idea that public policy should be aimed at providing the greatest happiness to greatest numbers of people in society.

6. Marxist political philosophy provided a different approach to development. As a political philosophy, Marxism radically rejected the liberalist worldview. Emerged as a critique of capitalism and philosophies associated with it, Marxism provided a ‘class analysis’ of the social world. Inequalities in society are embedded in economic and political power relations in society. In this approach, social classes and class distinctions embody these unequal power relations, which are in turn founded on the way in which economic resources of society are owned and controlled. Full human/social development, in Marxist theory, can only be achieved when these economic and social distinctions are eradicated through a process of revolution. Revolution should result in social ownership of means of production and exchange, thereby eradicating conditions for inequalities and class distinctions.

7. In the economic development approaches of the twentieth century, there were two broad models, capitalist and socialist. Both were based on two different philosophical traditions, the first on liberalism and the second on Marxism.

8. Development theories today are largely influenced by either liberal or Marxist/socialist approaches. The free-market approach to development that has been  experimented in Sri Lanka since late 1970s has its philosophical roots in economic and political liberalism.  Many critical alternatives to free-market capitalism as well as the current wave of globalization have some link to Marxist/socialist ideas.

Thanks 

Jayadeva Uyangoda