This is a 12-page Political Philosophy Paper discussing Rousseau’s concept of Executive Usurpation in the Social Contract Book III Chapters 10-18 and Michol’s Iron Law of Oligarchy and how they compare and relate. I am fairly new to political philosophy, but I am very familiar with political science. I’ve included some sources, a general outline and both a sample of a previous paper (On Forms of Governemnt) I’ve written and the portion of this paper I have written (Rousseau and The Iron Law of Oligarchy. Thank you, I’m in a major bind and this is an elective course! Rough Structure: Page 1 Intro – Introduce topics. – State thesis. Page 2 Explaining the iron law – Who proposed it – What does it say – Why does it state this Page 3 Apply the iron law – What situations has it been shown to apply Page 4 Explain executive usurpation – How does the government degenerate? – Why does the government degenerate? Page 5 Appy executive usurpation – Examples? – Effects of executive usurpation? Page 6 Connect executive usurpation to iron law – Influenced by one another Page 7 Compare executive usurpation to iron law Page 8 Contrast executive usurpation to iron law Page 9 Is it incurable? (According to JJR and Michols?) – Is executive usurpation inevitable? – Is the iron law inevitable? Page 10 Solutions proposed by JJR to executive usurpation – JJRs solution for executive usurpation (chapter 12, 13, 14, 18) – Applicable to iron law? Page 11 Solutions proposed to the iron law – Adolf Gasser’s solution. – Similar to JJR idea of small-scale democracy? Page 12 – Conclusion Notes: -Explain iron law -explain rousseaus position on government degradation and executive usurpation – Explain that rousseau sees this as a natural process, eventually the social contract is broken as there is no corporate will to maintain it (much like human death it is inevitable from its emergence) – Two ways a government degenerates; by government shrinking (democracy to aristocracy to monarchy) or by the state falling (ceasing to exist). The reverse is impossible. The government grows weaker and weaker by extending itself and must be tightened to hold itself, leading to the eventual downfall. The state ceases to exist when the prince usurps it (therefore the state is dissolved and a new one is created consisting solely of gov members), or when members of a government separately seize control of collective executive power (as many princes as magistrates) , the state from there must change its form. -When governments dissolve or degenerate the abuse of the state takes these forms: the state – anarchy, democracy – ochlocracy, aristocracy – oligarchy, monarchy – tyranny -Tyrant is in essence a usurper, seizes power against the law for himself and rules with law. Despot places himself above the law. All despots are tyrants. – All states, no matter how well-constituted, will die in the end. They are doomed from the moment of “birth”. – Legislative power is the beating heart of the state. When it ceases, the state ceases. When laws no longer cause strength, but weakness, the state will fall. Sources Rousseau “On the Social Contract” Book III Chapters 10-18 Roger D Masters Edition https://www.jstor.org/stable/2777554?seq=2 http://www.csun.edu/~hbsoc126/soc1/chapter%207%20supplement.pdf https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-social-contract/book-3-chapter-10-the-abuse-of-government-and-its-tendency-to-degenerate
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