- Common people who tried again and again to throw off
their oppressing weights. - A few men of reflective type of mind who set themselves to
the more difficult task of devising a political system which
would reconcile authority with individual freedom. They
wanted to protect the social order as, above all, they feared
political chaos; but they also wanted the individual to enjoy
the freedom which is his birth right.
Full of interest is the history of man's attempts to devise a socio-
political system which would concede man's basic human rights and
at the same time would place social order on a secure basis. One
such attempt was made by the Christian priests. They evolved a
system which is known as Theocracy. It did not go very well, mainly
because of the fanatical and oppressive demands it made on human
liberties. It was a tyranny sanctioned by religion. It was done in the
name of Christianity, although Christianity claimed to stand only
for the ''spiritual'' freedom of man. In the words of Viscount
Samuel:
It (Christianity) has supported the doctrine of the 'Divine Right of
Kings' and must bear responsibility forall the evil consequences of
that doctrine in the history of Europe.(1)
III. Might is RightThe doctrine that might is right also had its advocates. It was
defended by specious arguments. It was said that a social order
which had not the support of the powerful, could not last long.
Throughout human history, those who had power had ruled over
the weak. To make the mighty and the weak equal is to fly in the face
of nature, argued the opponents of Right. Reasonable men have
always found this doctrine of Might revolting and humiliating.
IV. Theory of ContractThe doctrine of the Divine Might of Kings was challenged by
some great thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and others developed a rival theory to
account for the rise of kingship and to justify the king's claim to the
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