The Socialism of to-day

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 835096955

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-28834

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Laveleye, Émile de

Title:: The Socialism of to-day

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Field & Tuer

Year of publication:: 1884

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XLIV, 331 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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94 THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. it into sensuality, and exciting, among those deprived of it, envy, hatred, and the spirit of revolt. Herr Meyer here joins hands with Montesquieu, who recurs again and again to the idea that excessive inequality should be prevented from dividing the nations, as it were, into two hostile peoples ; and he devotes the sixth and seventh chapters of the fifth book of the Esprit des Lois to the elucidation of this point. “ It is not enough,” he says, “ in a good democracy that the portions of land should be equal ; they must also be small, as among the Romans.” One might add, as in France to-day. A rural democracy, if only it were an enlightened one, would give to Europe a solid base upon which to found free institutions, and would save it from social upheavals. Montes quieu borrowed his maxims from antiquity, for Aristotle con tinually recurs to it. “ Inequality,” he says {Pol., b. v. ch. i.), “ is the cause of all revolutions, for no compensation can make up for inequality.” “ Men, equal in one respect, wished to be equal in everything. Equal in liberty, they demanded absolute equality. Not obtaining it, they imagine themselves cheated of their rights, and they rise in rebellion.” The only means of preventing revolutions, according to Aristotle, is to maintain a certain amount of equality. “ Cause even the poor to have a small inheritance.” That is precisely what was done, in great measure, by the laws of the French Revolution. “ A State,” once more says the Stagyrite, “ according to the wish of nature, should be composed of elements which approach as near as possible to equality.” He then shows that in a State where there are but two classes, the rich and the poor, conflicts are inevitable. “The conqueror,” he adds, “looks upon the government as the price of victory, and uses it to oppress and despoil the vanquished.” Therefore, when Rudolf Meyer and Rodbertus demand that laws should favour equality and main tain it, they only reproduce the thesis of Montesquieu and Aristotle. But how is this great object to be gained without sacrificing all liberty? Here lies the grand problem. For want of solving it, the ancient democracies perished in anarchy. Rodbertus admits that slavery was legitimate in ancient times. In order that the highest culture should be developed,

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