Johann Sebastian Bach, Contrapunctus 1, “The Art of Fugue”

Monday, September 25 University Forum: Robert Putnam speaking Tuesday, September 26 th at 11am in the Marriot Center

English Sources of American Government Day 1: The Historical Context

Lockean Liberty: the Enlightenment-era shift to individual freedom Freedom IN society: –Liberties are granted by the sovereign and can be taken away –Corollary: Rule legitimated by divine right Freedom FROM society –Liberty, or rights, are the birthright of each individual and cannot be taken away –Corollary: Rule legitimated by consent

English History The Stuart Monarchs: James I, Charles I, Charles II, James II –Autocratic approach to government The king’s “prerogative” –The Divine Right of Kings Sir Robert Filmer

Charles I

English history Conflict between Crown and Parliament –Financing wars by means of the royal prerogative, w/o Parliament’s consent –Religious conflict: fears of Catholicism

“Guy Fawkes,” English nursery rhyme

The execution of Charles I, 1649

“ I must tell you that the liberty and freedom [of the people] consists in having of Government, those laws by which their life and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in Government, Sir, that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things. ” –Charles I, at his execution

Oliver Cromwell

English History The Restoration of the Monarchy (Charles II), 1660 Rise of the Whig Party under John Locke’s mentor, the Earl of Shaftesbury, 1670s –Origin of “country party” (Whigs) vs “court party” (Tories)

John Locke

Locke’s Second Treatise of Government Problem: Determine what gives legitimacy to a ruler if Divine Right does not Historical Context: –“Popish plot,” 1678 –Exclusion Crisis, 1679 –James II assumes throne, 1685 –The Glorious Revolution, 1688

On the right to revolution “Wherever law ends, tyranny begins, if the law be transgressed to another’s harm; and whosoever in authority exceeds the power given him by the law, and makes use of the force he has under his command, to compass that upon the subject, which the law allows not, ceases in that to be a magistrate; and, acting without authority, may be opposed as any other man, who by force invades the right of another.” -- Locke, Second Treatise of Government

The primacy of law According to the Athenian ruler, Solon, an orderly state is created when the people obey the rulers, and the rulers obey the laws.