despaired of them ever being implemented in his contemporary Europe.
Although his major book is called theSocial Contract,and although he is
usually considered along withHobbesandLockeas asocial contract
thinker, his own views are much closer to the classical Greek political
philosophers, in that he regarded mankind as essentially social in nature, and
dismissed the idea of man living in astate of nature, except, perhaps, as a
‘noble savage’, one without the hallmark of humanity, the use of language.
Rule of Law
The meaning of the rule of law is fairly simple, but its application can often lead
to considerable problems: decision-makers of a society express their decisions
in terms of general rules or principles, which are then applied automatically
and indiscriminately by courts, police and administrators to anyone who comes
within their ambit. The stress is on the neutrality and generality of such
decision-making.Aristotle’sPoliticswas perhaps the first recognition that
individual human judgment on each and every case of social conflict that came
before a judge was not likely to produce fairness and equity, and thus
recommended that judges should be no more than appliers of previously fixed
rules to factual cases. Following this idea, the rule of law has come to be seen as
a major contribution to equality and liberty. It requires legislatures to look only
at the abstract feature of a problem, and to promulgate a general rule, and
judges to look only at relevant characteristics, under the immediate rule, in
deciding cases. The ‘judge’ can be anyone with decision-making powers on
particular cases—for example, an employee of the Department of Employment
deciding on an unemployment compensation case, or even a librarian deciding
the fine someone should pay on an overdue book. The essence is that they
should decide only according to the rule laid down, not according to their own
sense of justice or personal preference. This can sometimes lead to largely
similar cases being judged very differently due to marginal circumstantial
variations. The rule of law is contrasted with arbitrary power, as happens in
apolice state, or the personal whim of a dictator, however enlightened. It is
celebrated in the US Constitution which specifically calls for ‘the rule of law
and not of men’.
Rule of Law