(^110) › STEP 4. Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High
The economic laws that Smith identified, such as the law of supply and demand, are all
by-products of human self-interest. Smith asserted that the sum total of these natural
economic laws functioned like an “invisible hand” that guided the economy. Though the
prevailing economic theory, mercantilism, encouraged government intervention in the econ-
omy through tariffs, subsidies for domestic industry, and a favorable balance of trade, Smith
challenged this view. Efforts by governments to alter the natural laws of an economy, such as
putting a tax or tariff on foreign products, would ultimately fail, Smith argued. Accordingly,
Smith and his followers advocated a hands-off, or laissez-faire, economic policy, exemplified
by free markets and free trade.
Mary Wollstonecraft
In 1792, the English philosophe Mary Wollstonecraft published Vindication of the Rights of
Woman, in which she argued that reason was the basis of moral behavior in all human beings
(not just men). From that basis, she went on to assert that the subjugation of women in European
society was based on irrational belief and the blind following of tradition, and she challenged all
men of reason to acknowledge the equality and human rights of all men and women.
New Political Ideas
Enlightenment ideals about natural law, human nature, and society led Enlightenment
thinkers to ponder the question of the origin and proper role of government. Both Locke
and Hobbes wrote in the context of the English Civil War that pitted Royalists against
Parliamentarians. The Royalists supported the traditional power and privilege of the aris-
tocracy and the king. In contrast, the Parliamentarians were seeking to limit the power and
privilege of the aristocracy and the king.Thomas Hobbes
Hobbes was a Royalist. From his point of view, the Parliamentarians had brought chaos
to England by naively ignoring the fact that the natural state of humanity was war. Peace,
Hobbes argued in Leviathan, required a government capable of simultaneously striking the
fear of death in its subjects and guaranteeing that lawful subjects would attain a good quality
of life. In order to accomplish these tasks, the government required absolute power, which
it acquired by entering into an unbreakable contract, or sacred covenant, with the people.John Locke and Cesare Beccaria
Locke, a Parliamentarian, agreed that men were often ruled by their passions. But in Two
Treatises, he argued that in civil society, men settled disputes dispassionately and effectively
by creating a system of impartial judges and communal enforcement. In such a system, the
power of government came from the consent of the people, and its use was limited to pro-
tecting the people’s natural rights, particularly their right to property. Any government that
did not use its power to protect the rights of its people was no longer legitimate and both
could and should be deposed. In this way, he repudiated not only the idea of the divine
right of kings, but also the concept of absolutism.
In the eighteenth century, it was Locke’s vision of government and law that came to
dominate the Enlightenment. The Italian philosopher Cesare Beccaria carried Locke’s
line of thinking about the proper function of government further, arguing in Crime and
Punishment (1764) that the purpose of punishment should be to rehabilitate and reintegrate
the individual into society. Accordingly, the severity of the punishment should reflect the
severity of the crime.15_Bartolini_Ch15_099-118.indd 110 27/04/18 1:54 PM