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Single Idea 23045

[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / B. Nature of a State / 2. State Legitimacy / d. General will ]

Full Idea

Where laws and institutions are apparently the work of deliberate volition, they are in reality the result of a compromise, which while by a kind of social contract it has the acquiescence of all, expresses the will of none.

Gist of Idea

Politics is compromises, which seem supported by a social contract, but express the will of no one

Source

T.H. Green (works [1875]), quoted by John H. Muirhead - The Service of the State III

Book Ref

Muirhead,John H.: 'The Service of the State: T.H. Green' [John Murray 2021], p.67

A Reaction

Politicians who claim to be enacting the 'will of the people' (e.g. when they won a referendum 52-48) are simply lying. Committees usually end up enacting one person's will, but often without realising what has happened.

The 15 ideas from 'works'

23027 Ideals and metaphysics are practical, not imaginative or speculative [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23030 Truth is a relation to a whole of organised knowledge in the collection of rational minds [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23044 All knowledge rests on a fundamental unity between the knower and what is known [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23034 The ultimate test for truth is the systematic interdependence in nature [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23032 What is distinctive of human life is the desire for self-improvement [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23033 Hedonism offers no satisfaction, because what we desire is self-betterment [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23045 Politics is compromises, which seem supported by a social contract, but express the will of no one [Green,TH]
23031 God is the ideal end of the mature mind's final development [Green,TH]
23050 The ideal is a society in which all citizens are ladies and gentlemen [Green,TH]
23036 The good is identified by the capacities of its participants [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23039 A true state is only unified and stabilised by acknowledging individuality [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23038 People only develop their personality through co-operation with the social whole [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23040 If something develops, its true nature is embodied in its end [Green,TH]
23041 God is the realisation of the possibilities of each man's self [Green,TH]
23052 Enfranchisement is an end in itself; it makes a person moral, and gives a basis for respect [Green,TH]