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Single Idea 23052

[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / B. Nature of a State / 4. Citizenship ]

Full Idea

Enfranchisement of the people is an end in itself. …Only citizenship makes the moral man; only citizenship gives that respect which is the true basis of the respect for others.

Gist of Idea

Enfranchisement is an end in itself; it makes a person moral, and gives a basis for respect

Source

T.H. Green (works [1875], iii:436), quoted by John H. Muirhead - The Service of the State IV

Book Ref

Muirhead,John H.: 'The Service of the State: T.H. Green' [John Murray 2021], p.85

A Reaction

Should people respect their betters? If so, that is a sort of deferential respect which is different from the mutual respect between equals. That said, I wholly approve of this idea.

The 27 ideas from T.H. Green

23029 Knowledge is secured by the relations between its parts, through differences and identities [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23051 Equality also implies liberty, because equality must be of opportunity as well as possessions [Green,TH]
23042 National spirit only exists in the individuals who embody it [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23048 The ground of property ownership is not force but the power to use it for social ends [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23028 The highest political efforts express our deeper social spirit [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23054 Communism is wrong because it restricts the freedom of individuals to contribute to the community [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23046 States only have full authority if they heed the claims of human fellowship [Green,TH]
23047 Original common ownership is securing private property, not denying it [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23049 Property is needed by all citizens, to empower them to achieve social goods [Green,TH]
23035 The good life aims at perfections, or absolute laws, or what is absolutely desirable [Green,TH]
23037 People are improved by egalitarian institutions and habits [Green,TH]
23043 All talk of the progress of a nation must reduce to the progress of its individual members [Green,TH]
23038 People only develop their personality through co-operation with the social whole [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]