Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

individual liberty is subordinated to the "common good"
or "s.ocial justice." Under the rubric of popular sovereignty,
he says, Parliaments were established and inv
est e d wit h the power 0 f 1a w- ma kin g • This wa s not
s imp I y a t ran s fer 0 f aut h0 r i t Y rr om the king to" the
people" or their representatives, he points out, but an
addition to state power of immense proportions. In
pre-democratic societies the king was not sovereign but
waS seen as the mandatory of God or of the gods. But
God I s law was immutable. Hence, the king had no power
to make or change the law. Hec0 u 1d obtain obedience
only if he himself remained obedient to the divine law.
T his con fin edt h e king , sact ions wit h i n rat her na r row
and predictable limits.
Pos i t i ve leg i s I at i on appeared only when the idea
of popular sovereignty replaced that of divine sovereignty.
Since the people were now sovereign they were
em power edt 0 rna k e the law, and the Age 0 f Ra t iona lism
served to reinforce this by teaching that any order was
merely conventional and hence changeable at will. This,
says de Jouvenel, was a great breakthrough for state
power. By ident i fying themselves with the state, the
people were willing to delegate more and more power to
it. Democratic theorists erred, he says in quoting
Montesquieu, in confusing the power of the people with
the lib e r t y 0 f the pe 0 pIe, for the powe r 0 f the s tat e
"i s command, and everyone cannot command. Sovereignty
of the people is therefore nothing but a fiction," and
one whie h "c 0 n fer s on the r u Ie r s the aut h0 r i t Y 0 f the
whole."(22)
Whi Ie the emergence of democracy opened the doors
for the expansion of state power at the expense of social
power, the growth of the state beyond 8 certain
po i n t assumes a Ii fe of its own; expans ion of the state
in one area requires expansion in other areas as well.
For, "when the State is so large, when everything is
political, one cannot say 'I will live in a certain
way • I What hem u s t say i s'T0 I i ve ina ce r t a i n wa y
my s elf, I mu s t s e i z e the con t r 0 Isof the grea t rna chi ne
and em p loy themin s u c hamanneras sui t s me. I " In
this way every issue becomes politicized and requires
the i n t e r v e n t ion 0 f the s tat e • Dem 0 era c y, de J 0 uve ne I
therefore concludes, is merely "the time of tyranny's
incubation."(23)
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