A book from the Research and Traioing Group in Comparadve
Developmental Studies at the Institute of Industrial Relations
and the Institute of International Studies, University of Cali-
fornia, Berkeley
E
AND CITIZ NSHIP
Studies cf ohr
Changing social Order
Bendix
U 'versity of California
BePIreley, California
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
Preface
THIS book inaugurates a new series of comparative developmental
studies to be published by John Tiley and Sons. Facilitated by a grant
from the Carnegie Corporation, these studies are a part of the research
I
programs of the Institute of Industrial Relations and the Institute of
International Studies, University of California, Berkeley. In regular
meetings held for a number of yeys scholarsin the severalsocialsciences
have discussed problems and coqaborated on comparative studies of
development in the belief that intellectual interchange across disciplines
is a vital part of regular academib life. The present members of the
Research and Training Group in
are:
DAD E. APTER,Associate Direcdor, Institute of International Studies
l
and Professor of Political Scienye
REINHARDBENDM,Professor of Sociology, and Research Sociologist,
Comparative Developmental Studies
Institute of Industrial Relations
WALTERGALENSON,Professor of
Business Administration, and
trial Relations
As an initiator of this group, as a
a former chairman, I am pleased to
book of my own.
Industrial Relations, Department of
Research Economist, Institute of Indus-
beneficiary of its discussions, and as
open this publication series with a
vii
ERNSTB. HAAS,Professor of Political Science
D~vmS. LANDES,Professor of Hidtory and Economics
HARVEYLEIBENSTEIN,Professor of Economics, Chairman
SEYMOURUTINLIPSET,~irectdr,Institute of International Studies,
Professor of Sociology, and ~edearchSociologist, Institute of Indus-
trial Relations
DAVIDG. RIIANDELBAuM, Profess0 of Anthropology
1HENRYROSOVSKY,Chairman, Center for Japanese Studies and Professor
of Economics
HERBERTFRANZSCHURIMANN,Chairman, Center for Chinese Studies,
and Associate Professor of ~ i s t b r yand of Sociology
NEILJ. SMELSER,Professor of ~ o h o l o ~ ~
I
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
54 Nation-Building and Citizenship
inherent revolutionary potential appear inevitable to him, the actual
development depends on a nation's "moral and intellectual qualities
given by nature and education." In contrast to Marx, Tocqueville
does not attempt to predict the final outcome of the tendencies he
discerns or to explain away ideas by reference to some ultimate de-
terminant like the organization of production. He seeks to account
for the frame of mind in which servants reject the "rules of the game"
on which the established society is founded. T o do this he formulates
a theory _ofcrisis in the relations of masters and servants: ( I ) in an
earlier condition the socially inferior person possesses a recognized
status, which is reflected in the sense of "borrowed greatness" among
the servants of aristocratic masters; (2) in the crisis of transition the
masters retain their privileges but no longer perform their functions,
while the servants retain their obligations but perceive new oppor-
tunities; (3) in consequence the servants consider that the traditional
claims of their status have been abrogated unilaterally and/or that they
are now entitled to an equality of rights with all other social ranks
since in his capacity as a citizen every man is the equal of every other.
Tocqueville's theory of crisis in "domestic government" refers to
the master's evasion of "his obligation to protect and to remunerate,"
but then gives special attention to the ideas of equality which elicit
and shape the lower-class protest that initiates the "age of democratic
revolution." Both perspectives will be examined in Chapter 3 together
with an analysisof the extensionof citizenship.
by Ashton and Hutt in F. A. Hayek, ed., Cnpitalisin and the Historians (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1954). Although the level of living standards in the
early nineteenth century is still a subject for scholarly debate, the point here is
that a slow improvement after long deprivations is precisely the condition
singled out by TocqueviUe as a major cause of revolution. This possibility is
neglected in the famous studies of the Harnmonds which tend to equate all
deprivation with increasing misery, although they also show much sympathetic
understanding of the psychology of social unrest. Other observers agree with
Tocqueville on this point. See the telling statement by Frederick Douglass, the
early spokesman of American Negro slaves: "Beat and c d your slave, keep him
hungry and spiritless, and he wiU follow the chain of his master like a dog; but
feed and clothe him well,-work him moderately-surround him with physical
comfort,-and dreams of freedom intrude. Give him a bad master, and he aspires
to a good master, give him a good master, and he wishes to become his own
master," Quoted in Kenneth Stampp, T h e Peczdinr Institzltion (New York: A. A.
Knopf, 1956), p. 89. See also Eric Hoffer, T h e True Believer (New Yorlr:
Harper, 1951), pp. 25-29. However, this view was relatively rare compared with
that of the theory of revolution as a result of increasing misery, which was a
commonplace in Europe from the seventeenth century on. See the study by
Robert Michels, Die Verelendzingstheorie (Leipzig: Alfred Kroner, 1928).
Transformations of webtern European
I
I
I
Societies Since the Eigkeenth Century
TOCQUEVILLE carries hiE analysi? forward to the beginning of the
"age of equality." He characterizes khe impact of equalitarian ideas on
the relations between masters and servant; and anaiyzes the resulting
crisis in human relations. Writing i!n the 18309s,he speculates about
the future, especially in his brilliand comparison between the settled
conditions of equality in America and the unsettled conditions in
France. Today, we can look upon these speculations, as well as
those of Karl Marx, from the vantag&point of a later rime. Without
the effort of these men to discern thd outlines of the future we would
lack guidelinesfor a critical analvsis. iJ ---
W; saw that medieval political like depends on the link between
hereditary or spiritual rank in socied, control over land as the princi-
pal economic resource, and the exercibe of public authority. AU those
whose rank or status excludes them 5rom access to control over land
Iare thereby excluded from any direct participation in public affairs.
Rights and liberties are extended to $ou s, corporations, estates rather
I Pthan to individual subjects; representation in judicial and legislative
bodies is channeled through traditioda~~privileged estates. Within
Ithis framework no immediate rights are accorded to subjects in posi-
tions of economic dependence such ds tenants, journeymen, workers,
land servants: at best they are classified under the household of their
master and represented through him and his estate. This system is
broken up by the twinrevolutions of the West-the political and the
industrial-which lead to the eventull recognition of the rights of
citizenship for all adults, including those in positions of economic
dependence.
The following analysis begins with the crisis in "domestic govern-
ment" analyzed by Tocqueville. Fro? that crisis a new pattern of
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
56 Nation-Building and Citizenship
class relations emerges, replacing the earlier traditional one by an
individualistic authority relationship. New forms of unrest arise from
this new pattern of class relations, involving the idea of equal rights
for all citizens. An attempt is made to reinterpret the radicalization
of the lower classes in the course of English industrialization. Against
this background the process of nation-building is examined in terms
of a comparative analysis of the rights of citizenship. In the emerging
nation-states of Western Europe the critical political problem was
whether and to what extent social protest would be accommodated
through the extensionof citizenshipto the lower classes.
CLASS RELATIONS IN AN AGE OF CONTEUCT
Individzcalistic Authority Relatio~zships
The reciprocity of social relations falls into patterns because men
orient themselves toward the expectation of others and every action
of "the other" limits the range of possible responses. Authority
means that the few in command have a wide choice of options. Con-
versely, subordination means that the many who follow orders have
their range of choice curtailed. But the options of the few are limited,
even when the power at their command is overwhelming. One of these
limits is that even the most drastic subordination leaves some choices
to those who obey. Tacit noncooperation can be varied, subtle, and
more important than overt protest. Subordinates make judgments,
leading to degrees of cooperation or noncooperation that are important
variablesin every established pattern of authority.
The traditional ideology which defends the privileges of the aris-
tocracy in the name of its responsibilities must be seen in this light.
Tocqueville emphasizes the positive aspects of the social relations
which correspond to this world view. However willful and evasive
individual lords were, it is reasonable to assume that for a time the
sense and practice of aristocratic responsibility for their inferiors
were relatively high, just as the loyalty and obedience of subordinates
,were genuine. Indeed, without some responsibiltJy on one side and
/ some loyalty on the other, it would be meaningless to say that tradi-
j tional authority relations were disrupted. It is best to consider the
traditional pattern as partly a behavior pattern and partly an ideal in
view of the violent c o ~ c t swhich also characterize medieval society.
Ideals are essential in this connection because they affect the orienta-
tion even of those who fail to live up to them. Traditional authority
Transformations of Western Societies 57
Irelations remain intact as long as the actions and beliefs which deviate
from this pattern as well as thohe which sustain it do not undermine
Ithe basic reciprocity of expectations.
T o say that a crisis of tranktion sets in when men consciously
question previously accepted adreemens and conventions, does not
help us to distinguish this questioning from the continual adjustments
of rights and obligations which hccur while traditional authority rela-
tions remain "intact." Such adjustments involve modifications of
leges as an inalienable
ing which the actual is thoroughly obscured
by the traditional between the
rights and
which God has called them.
dissipation are a constant theme,
Condemnation of their indolence and
but these failings are considered in-
eradicable-a token of low social rank. Human quality and social
responsibility are believed to go &ether. The low station and quality
Iof the poor also exempt them from responsibility; not much can be
demanded of them. On the othhr hand, high rank also means great
responsibility. Even where tra practices are abandoned, it is
easy to continue the that the rich and powerful
treat the laboring their children. Throughout
much of the retains its appeal; a deeply
is all the more striking,
industrialization the re-'
hazards of life is re-
makes this rejection
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
58 Nation-Building and Citizenship
call for new interpretations of the cause of poverty. Three of these
interpretations are cited here. Though closely linked one with the
other, they represent more or less separable themes of English social
thought when, toward the end of the eighteenth century, traditional
charity and the old poor-law legislation as a means of helping the indi-
gent become controversial issues.l
One approach sees the cause of poverty inthe very effort to relieve
distress. The poor are not inclined to exert themselves; they lack the
pride, honor, and ambition of their betters. Previously this observa-
tion supported the view that the poor must be guided; now it sup-
ports the view that charity only destroys incentive and hence intensi-
fies poverty. Indolence increases where provision is made to succour
the poor; dire necessity is the most natural motive of labor, for it
exerts unremitting pressure on the poor. "The slave must be com-
pelled to worlc; but the freeman should be left to his own judgment
and discretion." Here the accent is on the supposition that the rich
cannot help the poor, even if they would, and further that the lower
orders must depend upon themselves. Rejection of upper-class re-
sponsibility goes hand in hand with the demand that the poor should
de self-dependent.
In the second approach the pernicious efforts of charity are linlced
with the market theory of labor. Hunger must be permitted to do its
work so that laborers are compelled to exert themselves. Otherwise
they will reduce their efforts and destroy their only safeguard against
starvation. Here labor is viewed as a commodity like any other, its
wage being determined by the demand for this commodity rather
than the need of the laborer or his ability to survive. The only rele-
vant question is what the labor is worth to the employer. For the
employer is subject to the same necessities of supply and demand as the
laborer. This means in the long run that he cannot pay him more
than he offers without jeopardizing his enterprise, and hence that the
interests of capital and labor are identical. The market theory means
that the employer cannot act irresponsibly without damaging his own
interest and that the laborer has no safeguard but exertion and no
. guarantee against starvation.
I
The third approach, specifically identified with the work of Malthus,
relates this market theory of labor to the theory of population. In-
stead of asserting a harmony of interest between rich and poor, Malthus
lThe details need not concern us here. For fuller discussion and citations see
my study W o r k and Authority in lndzistry (New York: John Wiley & Sons,
1956), pp. 73 ff.
2 Statement of Rev. Townsend quoted in ibid., p. 74.
Transformations of Western Societies 59
Iaclrnowledges the inevitability of periodic and acute distress. He
attributes this phenomenon to the tendency of population to increase
faster than the means of subsistence1 a law of nature which the upper ,
classes are powerless to alter. Malthus states that poverty is inescap-
able and a necessary stimulus to ls)bor, that charity and poor relief
only increase indolence and irnprovjdence, that the higher classes are
not and cannot be responsible for the lot of the poor. But in terms
of the present content he also adds ahimportant idea. If it is a law of
nature for the poor to increase thkir numbers beyond the available
Ifood supply, it is the responsibility of the higher classes to understand
this law and instruct the lower o!ders accordingly. Improvidence
may be a natural tendency, but id also results from ignorance and
lack of moral restraint, and these failings can be combated through
education.
Education, then, is the keynote of the new, entrepreneurial ideology,
since 2mployers no longer possess L e all-encompassing personal au-
thority of the aristocratic master. ~ u c hreliance is placed on such
impersonal forces as economic necessity and the pressure of population
on resources-much more reliance than was the case when the master
exercised an entirely personal domihation over his household. Even
so, employers must deal with the mahagemem of men, and early in the
nineteenth century complaints are heard concerning the increasing
personal distance which makes such management dficult, especially
on the old, paternalistic basis. the spread of equalitarian ideas
the emphasis on social rank the gulf between the classes
personal influence of employ-
ers declines. not only on impersonal
influence of ideas and
which employers
sympathy and
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
60 Nation-Building and Citizenship
bidding of their employers; and (3) the educational element, modeled
after the classroom, the psychological laboratory, or the therapeutic
session in which instruction, incentives and .penalties, or indirect, mo-
tivational inducements are used to discipline the workers and prompt
them to intensify their efforts.
For the course of Western European industrialization we can posit
a sequence leading first to a decline of the paternalistic and a rise of
, the--- impersonal element and subsequently a declining reliance _on
market forces and an increasing reliance on educational devices. The
sequence applies most closely to the English and American develop-
ment, though even here it is a rough approximation. For paternalism
always includes an educational element, reliance on market forces has
often been adumbrated in a paternalistic manner, and the educational
dimension is compatible with an impersonal as well as a personal ap-
proach. DZferent cultural antecedents as well as the changing organi-
zational structure of economic enterprises have much to do with
varying emphases among managerial ideologies such as those of the
United States, Germany, and J a ~ a n . ~
The political dimension of these ideologies is of special moment,
however. In an emerging nation-state which has destroyed the earlier
fragmentation of public authority, agencies of the national government
afford employers of labor legal protection for their rights of property.
These rights are part of a broad egalitarian trend which also finds
expression in the praise of frugal habits and hard work, qualities that
enable every man to acquire property and status. At the impersonal
level of ideological appeals this approach produces certain typical
paradoxes that are of political sipdicance.
Individualistic interpretations of the authority relationship do not
remain confined to the enterprise. The idea of an impersonal market
which will induce workers to offer their services and work diligently
calls for policies that will facilitate the operation of that market. More-
over, recourse to ideological appeals and educational methods suggest
that impersonal incentives are insdicient. Eneepreneurs also seek
to inculcate the desired habits and motives. But by encouraging the
self-dependence of the workers, they run the risk that such individ-
ualism will eventuate in social and political protest rather than coopera-
tion and compliance.
klbid., Chap. 5; Heinz Hamnann, Authority and 0rga~zizntio.r~in Gemzan
Managwnent (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959), passi.m; and James
G.Abegglen, The Japanese Factory (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1958).
rans sf or mat ions of Western Societies 61
I
Lower-Class Unrest Becomer Aolitical: England
For the praise of good habits ahd hard work lends itself to invidious
judgments of a very provocative
is a model to be followed as
dent one, whose deficiencies are
will listen and as a warning that
6 T o some extenf modern social and edonomic theories still reflect the historical
situation in which they were fist devkloped, but a century and a half later it
should be possible to guard against this- bias. See Chap. I, Sect. c, 4 above.
type. The good and honest worker
distinguished from the lazy and improvi-
broadcast for the benefit of all who
invites contempt and condemnation.
When political developments b e attributed to economic determi-
nants, the changing position of t e lower classes and the emergence
I"of national citizenship appear as by-products of industrialization. This
The public manner in which these "collective attributes" are discussed
makes them into a political issuk. The moral division of the lower
classes into diligent and improv/dent poor not only challenges the
complacency of the idle, but also jeopardizes the self-respect of those
who remain poor despite the most strenuous efforts. That self-respect
is jeopardized still further when economic success is interpreted as a
synonym of virme and failure as a sign of moral turpitude. In a
context of widening agitation suih judgments help to make the civic
position of the lower orders into a national political issue. The in&:
vidualist interpretation of authority relations in industry appears from
this standpoint as an effort to depy the rights of citizenship to those
who are unsuccessful economically, an approach that can arouse a new
sense of right on the part of the lower classes and lead to groping
efforts to d e h e the position of khese classes in the national political
comunity. Just as ~oc~uevillelfocuses attention on a transition in
domestic relations, marked by a change in the terms of commands and
obedience, so the following discusion will focus attention on a transi-
9tion in group relations on the pational level, marked by changing
ideas concerning the rights and obligationsof the lower classes.
I
line of interpretation develops at
I~appears-plausiblein the sense
States and France "reflect the rise
trial revolution in England leads
emerging industrial work force.
the end of the eighteenth century.
that the revolutions in the United
of the bourgeoisie," while the indus-
to the political mobilization of an
Greatly sirnpMed as these state-
ments are, they refer to historical phenomena rather than general
principles. Yet it is in the light ok these historical phenomena that all
Ipolitical events were first construed as more or less direct by-products
of social and economic processes!6 Today we know that elsewhere
I
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
62 Nation-Building and Citizenship
political revolutions have occurred in the absence of an economically
strong and politically articulate middle class, or perhaps because of
that absence, as in Russia or Japan. Again, the political mobilization
of the lower classes has occurred as a ~reludeto industrialization,
rather than as a result of it, as, for example, in rhe United States.
Thus, although changes in the economic and political spheres are
closely related, their duences work in both directions. Hence we get
little guidance if we tacitly accept Western Europe and especially
England as our model. It is true that there democratic ideas originated
under circumstances in which socio-economic changes'had a massive
impact upon the political structure, but these ideas have spread around
the world ever since in the absence of similar circumstances. Na-
tional citizenship and modern industrialism have been combined with
a variety of social structures; hence we should recognize democratiza-
e.qand industrialization as-poerocgsses, each distinct from the other,"-I_ I
however intimately have been related on occasion.
The two processes have been closely linked in England. For a long
time the English development has served as a model for an under-
standing of economic growth in relation to political modernization-
perhaps simply because England was the first country to develop a
modern industry. Just for these reasons it may be well to show that
even in England it is possible to distinguish the political element in
the midst of economic change. W e saw that prior to the eighteenth
century the lower classes might try to wring concessions from the
ruling powers by a "legitimist" posture mixed with violence; or that
they might compensate for their exclusion from the exercise of public
rights by millenarian fantasies and banditry. DZferent forms of lower-
class protest became possible, however, after enlightened despotism
and the philosophers of the Enlightenment had formulated the-prin--
cjple of equal rights-for all-men. The spread of this idea was certainly
facilitated by industrialization, a fact which was recognized early:
Of the working men, at least in the more advanced countries of Europe,
it may be pronounced certain that the patriarchal or paternal system of
governmentis one to which they will not again be subject. That question
was decided, when they were taught to read, and allowed access to news-
papers and political tracts; when dissenting preachers were suffered to go
among them, and appeal to their faculties and feelings in opposition to the
creeds professed and countenanced by their superiors; when they were
brought together in numbers, to work socially under the same roof; when
railways enabled them to shift from place to place, and change their
Transformations of Western Societies 63
I
patrons and employers as easily as thkr coats; when they were encouraged
to seek a share in the government, b i means of the electoral franchise.6
IIn this statement Mill describes a relatively industrialized country,
and his references to dissenting prkachers and the el~rtoralfranchise
point to conditions thatare-more br less peculiar to England at this
time. But he also notes several fahtors which have been rather gen-
erally associated with the recruitment of an industrial work force: the
literacy of workers, the spread of p$inted matter among them, physical
concentration of work, increased beographic mobility, and the de-
personalization of the employme4t relationship. Mill's descriptive
account may be considered equiva ent to Mannheim's statement that
\"modern industrial societyn-by physically and intellectually mobiliz-
ing the people-"stirs into action t,hose classes which formerly only
played a passive part in political life.
'1Under the influence of ideas of epality this mobilization of lower-
clan protest comes to be oriented, broadly spealcing, toward real-g
-----
full participation in the existing po$tical community or establishing a
nitis-polXcalcornmunity in which such participation would be
possible. This consideration may h/e applied initially to some of the
popular disturbances in early ninetdenth-century England. For Marx
these disturbances are similar to thb sporadic rebellions in which for
several centuries peasants and artisabs have destroyed machines as the
most immediate instruments of the& oppre~sion.~Later writers have
shown that this violence was directid against bankers or money-lend-
ers as much as against machines, anh that despite their obvious agita-
tion the workers of early nineteenhh-century England show a most
surprising respect for property not ldirectly connected with their dis-
I
6 John Stuart Mill, Principles of ~olitdalEconomy, 11, pp. 322-323. Mill's
statement is cited here as an exceptionall$ dear formulation of what was appar-
Iently a common topic of conversation. See the illuminating survey of the grow-
ing consciousness of class relations by A A ~ Briggs, "The Language of 'Class' in
Early Nineteenth Century England," in A!sa Briggs and John Saville, eds., Essays
in Labour History in Mevzory of G. D. H. Cole (London: Macmillan, 1960),
pp. 43-73.
7 This is Karl Mannheim's definitionof "fundamental democratization," which is
compatible with merent foms of goverdnent,not only with "democracy." The
definition is useful, however, because it &$lights the emergence of a national
political community in which all adults regardless of class are citizens and hence
participants. See Karl Mannheirn, Man and Society in an Age of Reconstzrctioz
(NewYork: Harcoutt,Brace, 1941),p. 44. /
8See Karl Marx, Capital (New York: Modern Library, 19361,pp. 466-478 for his
surveyand interpretationof suchrebellions1
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
64 Nation-Building and CitkenshipI I
face to face with a manifest legal
inequity; they are for peaceful collective
bargaining, while are tolerated or even
encouraged. riot" easily accom-
denied despite ac-
revolutionary propaganda or as a dangerous incentive to insubordina-
tion?l It is difticult to knqw what sentiments such debates arouse
0 The phrase has been coined bb E. J. Hobsba-, "The Machine Breal~ers,"
Past and Present, I (1952), 57-701 Evidence concerning the d i s ~ c d o nbetween
looting and such disturbances as1the famous Luddite riots is analyzed in Frank
0.Damall, Popular Disturbances and Public Order in Regency Englaed (London:
Odord UniversityPress, 19341, 314-315 and p a s ~ h ~ .
loNote in this respect Marx's emphasis upon the way in which combinations of
worlcers and employers stimulated each other and the reference in the text below
to the awareness of this inequity among English magistrates. A study of indus-
trial and agrarian disputes in Japan suggests that much the same mechanism
operates in a very Werent cul&al setting. See the comment that "an increas-
ing number of tenant farmers beLame convinced of the need for political action,I
when they learned how often court verdicts, which were based on existing
laws, went against them," in ~ e b r ~ e0. Totten, "Labor and Agrarian Disputes
in Japan Following World War I," Ecolzomic Developwzent and Cultural Change,
M (October 1960),pt. 11,194.
I 11Similar questions were raised with regard to universal conscription, since
arms in the hands of the commoh people were considered a revolutionary threat.
1 A case study of the conscriptio4 issue and its significance for the development
t of class relations in Germany is Gerhard Ritter, Staatskunst zwld Kriegshandwerk
(Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1954)1, pp. 60-158 and passim. See also the related
discussion in Katherine Chorley7Amzies and the Art of Revolution (London:
Faber & Faber, 1943), pp. 87-107, 160-183. The related debates on literacy are
analyzed in detail with referencd to the English experience in M. G. Jones, The
Charity School Mooeme~t ((&bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1938),
passivz.
Transformations of Western Societies 65
among the people themselves. Faced with the inequity of their legal
position and a-public debate over their civic reliability, there is na-
turally much vacillation. T h e people seem t o alternate between in-
sistence on ancient rights and violent uprisings against the most ap-
parent causes of oppression; protestations of respectability and cries
for bloody revolution; proposals for specific reforms and utopian
-schemes of bewildering variety. But such a diversity of manifesta-
tions can have a common core in the transitional experience which
Tocqueville characterizes:
. . . there is almost always a time when men's minds fluctuate between the
aristocratic notion of subjection and the democratic notion of obedience.
Obedience then loses its moral importance in the eyes of him who obeys;
I he no longer considers it as a species of divine obligation, and he does not
yet view it under its purely human aspects; it has to him no character of
sanctity or justice, and he submits to it as to a degrading but profitable
condition.12
1
In England, at the political level, this ambivalence is resolved as the
idea gains acceptance that the people's rights as citizens have been
denied unjustly because as working people they have rights b y virtue
of their contribution to the nation's wealth.
There are several reasons for accepting the plausibility of this inter-
pretation, even though it may be impossible to prove. One such reason
is that legal inequity and the public debate over the people's civic
unreliability represent a cumulative denial of their respectability which
occurs just when industrialization and the spread of equalitadan ideas
stirs "into action those classes which formerly only played a passive
part in political life" (Mannheim). On occasion this denial of re-
spectability is tantamount to a denial of the right t o existence, as in
this passage from Thomas Malthus, which became a notorious object
of socialist attacks.
A man who is born into a world already possessed, if he cannot get sub-
sistence from his parents on whom he has a just demand, and if the society
does not want his labour, has no claim of right to the smallest portion of
food, and, in fact, has no business to be where he is. A t Nature's mighty
feast there is no vacant cover for him. She tells him to be gone, and will
quickly execute her own orders.13
Extreme statements such as this or Burke's reference to the "swinish
multitude" were made by intellectuals and may not have been widely
1TocqueviUe, Dmmzocracy in Anzerica, 11, 194-195.
1 3 Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Popztlation (2nd ed.; London:
J. Johnson, 18031, p. 531. This passage was modified in the later editions of
the Essay.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
66 Nation-Building and Citizenship
known. However, haughtiness and fear were widespread in middle-
class circles, and it is reasonable to expect a growing sensitivity among
the people, however inarticulate, in response to this public questioning
of their respectability.
Contemporary observers frequently commented on the popular re-
action. These observers are often remote from working-class life,
partisans in the debate concerning the 'Sower classes," and divided
among themselves. Their biases are many, but partisanship can sensi-
tize as well as distort understanding. In England such different ob-
servers as Thomas Carlyle, William Cobbett, Benjamin Disraeli, and
Harriett Martineau comment on the feeling of injustice among the
workers, on their loss of self-respect, on the personal abuse which
the rulers of society heap upon them, on the Chartist movement as the
common people's expression of outrage at the denial of their civil
rights, and on the workers' feeling of being an "outcast order" in their
own Such a civic disaffection of the people was regarded
with grave concern by prominent spokesmen in many European so-
cieties. In retrospect this concern appears justified in the sense that the
position of the "people7'as citizenswas indeed at issue.16
The implicit or explicit denial of the peoples' civic respectability
is countered rather naturally by an insistence on people's rights which
must not be abrogated. That insistence is founded first on a sense of
righteous indignation at the idea that labor which is "the Corner-
stone upon which civilized society is built" is "offered less . . . than
will support the family of a sober and orderly man in decency and
comfort."*6 This conception of a "right to subsistence" with its
14 See the chapter "Rights and Mights" in Thomas Carlyle, Clgartiwz (Chicago:
Belford, Clarke, 1890),pp. 30-39; G. D. H. and Margaret Cole, eds., T h e Opinions
of Willianz Cobbett (London: Cobbett, 1944), pp. 86-87, 123-124, 207, and pas-
sill^; Hansar8s Parlianzen'tnry Debates, Vol. XLIX (1839), cols. 246-247; and R. IZ.
Webb, T h e British Working Class Reader (London: Allen & Unwin, 19551, p. 96
for the sources of these statements. Also relevant here is the famous simile of
the "two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who
are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they were
dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of merent planets, who are formed
by a different breeding, are fed by a difFerent food, are ordered by merent
manners, and are not governed by the same laws." This passage occurs in
Benjamin Disraeli's novel Sybil (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1954),p. 73.
15For a survey of propagandistic efforts to counteract this "civic disaffection"
in England, see R. K. Webb, op. cit., pnssi71z, and Reinhard Bendix, W o r k ~ n d
Authority in Indztstrj~,pp. 60-73.
lsThe quoted phrase is from a Manchester handbill of 1818 reprinted in J. L.
and Barbara Hammond, T h e T o w n L~bourer(London: Longmans, Green, 1925),
ranssformations of Western Societies 67
traditional overtones, the idea of i'labor's right to the whole pr~duct,'~
and the belief that each able-bo ed worker has a "right to labor" are
dithe three inherent or natural rights put in opposition to the contrac-
tually acquired rights that alone are recognized by the prevailing legal
system.17 Although the theoreti' a1 elaborations of these concepts in
Fthe socialist literature do not reveal the thinking of the ordinary man,
it is plausible to assume that q e common theme of these theories
expresses the strivingsof the worhgman in the nation-state.18
In England, lower-class protedp appear to aim at establishing the
citizenship of the worlcers. Those who contribute to the wealth and
i
welfare of their country have a right to be heard in its national coun-
cils and are entitled to a status that commands respect. In England,
these demands never reach the redolutionary pitch that develops rather
frequently on the Continent, altkough occasionally violent outbursts
Idisrupt English society as well. If the political modernization of Eng-
1
land for all its conticts occurred m a relatively continuous and peace-
ful manner, then one reason is rhaps that throughout much of the
nineteenth century England waf the leader in industrialization and
overseas expansion. English worfrers could claim their rightful place
in the political community of the leading nation of the world.1s
pp. 306-308. In Tocqueville's paradid this idea may be said to fall midway be-
tween the belief in "ancient rights" that have been wrongfully abrogated and the
claim that the servants themselves shohd be the masters. Note also the analysis
by von Stein who states that the andpgonism between worlcers and employers
"arises from the belief in the rights and worth of the individual workers, on one
hand, and from the knowledge that unber present conditions of machine produc-
tion the wages of the worker will no1 be commensurate with his claims as an
individual!' See Lorenz von Stein, "yer Begriff der Arbeit und die Prinzipien
des Arbeitslohnes in ihrem VerhBltnisse zum Sozialismus und Communismus,"
Zeitscl~riftfiir die gesanzte
17For a detailed of natural rights in socialist
property, see Anton Menger,
MacrniUan, 18991, passinz.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
9
68 Nation-Building and Citizenship "
Within that favorable context the national debate concerning the
proper status of the lower classes is carried on in the traditional lan-
guage of religion. Certainly, English workers are greatly disillusioned-
with the-established Church and with religious appeals which all too
often are thinly disguised apologies for the established order. Never-
theless, doctrinaire atheism is rare, and English working-class leaders
often couch their demands in Biblical or quasi-Biblical language.20
Thus, England's prominence as a world power and a common religious
background may have facilitated the civic incorporation of the work-
ers, even though the new national balance of rights and duties was not
accomplished easily.
An example from the field of industrial relations illustrates the
niceties of this English transition to a modern political community.
At first glance, the legal prohibition of trade unions in the early nine-
teenth century looks like brute suppression. "Worlringmen's combina-
tions" are said to curtail the employer's as well as the worker's formal
legal rights. However, in their survey of early trade unionism, the
Webbs conclude that the inefficient organization of the police, the
absence of effective public prosecution, and the inaction of the em-
content," The Econo~nicHistory Review, I1 (1930), 227-228; Henri de Man,
T h e Psychology of Socialism (New Yorlc: Henry Holt, 1927), pp. 3941, with
regard to the role of injured self-respect in English radical protest; and Selig
Perlrnan, A.TI3eory of the Labor Movement (New Yorlc: Augustus Kelley,
19491,p. 291,who emphasizesthe special si@cance of the franchiseissue.
20 Some evidence of the relation between religious revivalism and worlcing-class
protest is discussed in my W o r k and Authority in Indz~stry,pp. 60-73, but the
issue is controversial. In his Social Bandits and Primitive Rebels, pp. 126-149,
Hobsbawrn questions that the religious movements among workers diminished
their radicalism. In his Chztrcbes and the Working Classes in Victorian England
(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963), K. S. Inglis assembles a mass of
evidence which suggests that English workers were marlcedly indifferent towards
religious observances throughout the nineteenth century. But even Inglis admits
(ibid., 329-332) that atheism was rare among English workers (though pro-
nounced among their fellows on the Continent),and that large numbers of worlc-
ing-class children attended Sunday schools. Such an admission may well be
critical, however, since the question is not whether English workers were true
believers, but whether they continued to use religious ideas in their "quest for
respectability." Religious ideas are not necessarily less important when they
become associated with secular concerns. See the analysis of secularity and
religion in the American context by S. M. Lipset, T h e First N e w Nmion (New
York: Basic Books, 19631, pp. 151-159, and of the exacerbation of class-relations
in the absence of a viable religious language by Guenther Roth, T b e Social
Democrats in I?nperial Gernzany (New Yorlc: The Bedminster Press, 1963),
passi?~.
Transfopations of Western Societies 69
It will lead to an opinion that it is ndt the business of the masters of the
trade who feel the injury to prosecute,but that it is the business of Govern-
ment. . . . It must be admitted indee that the offence has grown to such
height and such an extent as to make it very discouraging for any individual
4to institute a prosecution-as the perso s whom he would prosecute would
be supported at their trial and dur' g their imprisonment by the con-
tributions of their confederates, and his own shop would probably be
deserted by his workmen. But then it is clear that it is owing to the
inertness and timidity of the masters hat the conspiracy has reached this'Iheight, and it may well be feared that bus inertness will be rather increased
than diminished by the interference of Government. . . .When they once
and not theirs to
more diflicult. Besides . . . the
impartiality of Government situated, if, after under-
of the journey-
ployers were responsible for the widespread occurrence of illegal
combinations despite this unequivocal legal
More recently, a publication of dbcuments on the early trade unions
has revealed why neither employe~snor government officials would
resort to all the legal remedies opjn to them. Apparently, the em-
ployers wished the government to institute proceedings against illegal
combinations. An opinion of the ~ h o r n e ~General, sent to the Home
Secretary in 1804, is of special intdrest in this respect. The opinion
sets forth details of the great evil bf combinations among workmen
This opinion is instructive, even dough its judiciousnes~cannot be
considered representative.
throughout the country, combinations
liable to prosecution. But if the
'lSidney and Beatrice Webb, T h e ~ i s t b r yof Trade Unionism (New York:
Longmans, Green & Co., 19261,p. 74.
"A. Aspinall, ed., T h e Early English Trade Uniom, Doczcvments from the Home
Ofice Papers in the Public Record 0fi1.e (London: Batchworth Press, 1949),
pp. 90-92.
said to be clearly illegal and
government were to initiate the
prosecution in the case under consideration, then applications for
similar actions on the part of the gdvernment can be anticipated from
every other trade, since "combinatibns exist in almost every trade in
the kingdom."
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
70 Nation-Building and Citizenship ~radsfoimationsof western societies 71
I
Whatever their partiality toward the employers, the magistrates are
responsible for maintaining law and order. This task is complicated
time and again by the reluctance of employers to make use of the law
prohibiting combinations, by their repeated attempts to induce the
government to do it for them, by their tendency to connive in these
combinations when it suits their purpose, and finally by their tendency
to reject all responsibility for the consequences of their own actions
in the belief that ultimately the government will maintain law and
order and protect their interests. It is not surprising that the magis-
trates are often highly critical of the employers, holding that the
latter act with little discretion, that they can well afford to pay higher
wages, and that the complaints of the workers are justiiied even though
their combinations are illegal. Sometimes the magistrates even act as
informal mediators in disputes between employers and their workers
in the interest of maintaining the peace.23 Thus, neither the partiality
of the magistrates nor the principle of a hands-off policy nor the
employers' evident opportunism is tantamount to suppression, even
though in practice little is done to meet the workers' complaints except
on terms calculated to injure their status as self-respecting members
of the community.
In this period of transition Tocqueville sees a major revolutionary
threat. The master continues to expect servility, but rejects responsi:
bility for his servants, while the latter claim equal rights and becomi
intractable. At the societal level the English case approximates this
model. Many early English entrepreneurs certainly reject all responsi-
bility for their employees and yet expect them to obey; they reject all
governmental interference with management, though they seek to
charge government with responsibility for any untoward public conse-
quences of their own acts." Government officials support the en-
trepreneurs in many cases because they are profoundly concerned
with unrest and truculence. But having said this, several reservations
must be added. There are some manufacturers who acknowledge the
traditional obligations of a ruling class. Among some magistrates the
23For examples of these several aspects, see ibid., pp. 116, 126, 168-169, 192-193,
216-219,229,234-235,237-238,242,259-260, 272,283, and so on.
24011 this basis even staunch ideological spokesmen for laissez-faire were
actively engaged in the extension of governmental controls. For details see
Marion Bowley,Nassau Senior and Clnssical Econo7~zics(London: Allen & Unwin,
1937), pp. 237-281; S. E. Finer, The Life and Times of Edwin Chadwick
(London: Methuen, 1952),passire; J. B. Brebner, "Laissez-faire and State Inter-
vention in 19th Century Britain," Journal of Econov~zicHistory, Vm (Supple-
ment 1948),59-73.
to by a de-
century. Finally, the developing working
class is cast in a more in the sense that on
balance it adds up to a quest public acceptance of equal citizen-
ship. In other words, English iety proved itself capable of accom-
modating the lower class as an participant in-thenational political
community, though even in this development involved a
prolonged struggle and the of equality as we under-
stand them today evolved
Theoretical 2;7;1zplications
The preceding discussion is chnfined to developments in England.
Industrialization can be initiated only once; after that its techniques
are borrowed; no other country tpt has since embarked on the process
can start where England England
is the exception rather than the
a near monopoly on the
duction, and other countries
of the nineteenth century the forefront in that she
combined industrial with In retrospect we
know that as a result of she possessed a
national political
--.
the demand for "full citizenship" becomes meaningful at all? It is not
a novel idea to suggest that lowe -class protest may progress from a
icdemand for full citizenship w i t 9 the prevailing political community
to a demand for a change of ths community in order to make full
citizenship possible. But although this idea is compatible with Marx's
theory of an advance from mac/une breaking to political action, it
should be noted that I emphasize tpesnation from the political com-
munity rather than the alienation which results from "creative dis-
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
72 Nation-Building and Citizenship
. .
as,Marx does. This shift of eniphasis helps us to see
together two 'inass movements of the nineteenth century-socialism
and- nationalism-in contrast to Marx who explains the first .while
ignoring the second. There is a very close link be
' nationalist agitation in that both aim in different ways at the politica
integration of the masses previously excluded from participation. Thi
]ink is obscwed by the Marxist separation of these
the fact that England's pre-eminence as a world power made it
necessary for the English lower class to demand a national poli
to which it could belong in self-respect." Yety
exceptional development of England has served social theorists fo
century as the model which other countries are expected to f
The approach here proposed is not a mere reversal of the
theory. ~ a r xlooks upon social movements of the
as protests against psychic and material deprivations that curnula
a result of the capitalist process; he sees in the masses a funds
craving for creative satisfactions in a good Society. I inte
protest movements as political and define their character in
the contrast between a premodern and a modern polscal co
When this view is taken, t ~ i g f i f e ~ h . . . _ c e P q!!P.pe%s
hiatus.- in.. Westem. - ..... European-.-.-... --.- ..history..
Prior to that time the mass
the people were entirely barred from the exercise of public ri r a new social order, the
since then they have become citizens and in this sense par eir second-class citizen-
the political community. The "age of democratic revolution" terms of equality inthe
from that time to the present. During this period some socie this is a correct assess-
universalized citizenship peacefully, while others have bee
do so and have consequently suffered various types of revolu production, without corn-
2s See the following statement from a speech of the Chartist lea
delivered in 1837: "It seems to me to be an anomaly that in a co
arts and sciences have been raised to such height, chiefly by the indus
and labours of the artisan . . .ody one adult male in Seven should hav
duals and the second
that in such a country the working classes should be excluded from
of political life." Quoted in M. Beer, A History of British Socinlism ( of this reductionism
Allen & Unwin, 1948),TI, pp. 25-26. It is instructive to contr h which emphasizes
with that by the Italian nationalist leader Mazzini: 'Without
neither name, token, voice, nor rights. . . .DO not b e d e
hope of emancipation from unjust social ~0nditi0n~if YOU
a Counuy for yourselves. ...Do not be led away by the idea of impr
your material conditions without first solving the national question. . ..To
...you are not the working class of Italy; you are ody fractions
class. . . .Your emancipation can have no ~racticdbeginning until a
Government [is founded] ." See Joseph Mazzini, The Duties of Man a
Essays (NewYork: E. P.Dutton, 19121,pp. 53-54.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
74 Nation-Building and Citizenship
ment of the impulses and half-articulated longings characteristic of
much popular agitation among lower classes in Western Europe, then
we have a clue to the decline of socialism. For the civic position of
these classes is no longer a pre-eminent issue in societies in which the
equality of citizenshiphas been institutionalized successfully.
The following section of this chapter traces this institutionalizauon
on a comparativebasis.
THE EXTENSION OF CITIZENSHIP TO T& LOWER CLASSES
Elm19ent.s of Citizerrzship
-In the nation-state each citizen stands in a direct relation to the
sovereign authority of the country in contrast with the medieval
polity in which that direct relation is enjoyed only by the great men
of the realm. Therefore, a core element of nation-building is the
Todification of the rights and duties of all adults who are classified as
citizens. The question is how exclusively or inclusively citizenship
is defined. Some notable exceptions aside, citizenship at first _ex-
cludes all socially- and economically dependent persons. In the course
of the nineteenth centurythis massive restriction is gradually reduced
until eventually all adults are classified as citizens. In Western Europe
this extension of national citizenship is set apart from the rest of the
History," Cumparntive Studies in Society and History, II (April 1960), pp.
329-343, by the same author, "Social Security, Incentives and Controls in the
U.S. and the U.S.S.R.," loc. cit., IV (November 1961), pp. 104-124, and Samuel
Surace, T h e Stancs Evolution of ltnlian Workers, 1860-1914 (Ph.D. Dissertation,
Department of Sociology,University of California, Berkeley, 1962).
The following section was written jointly with Dr. Stein Rokkan, Christian
Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway. I have adapted the original essay in keep-
ing with the purposes of this volume. Subsequent formulations will emphasize
the classificatory sense in which the term 'lower classes" is used. The question
is left open which sections of the "lower classes" develop a capacity for
concerted action and under what circumstances. Although in some measure a
response to protest or the result of anticipating protest, the extension of citizen-
ship occurred with reference to broadly and abstractly defined groups such as
all adults over 21, or women or adults having specsed property holdings, ful-
filling certain residence requirements, etc. Such groups encompass many people
other than those who have few possessions, low income, little prestige, and who
because of these disabilities are conventionally understood to "belong" to the
lower classes. The reference here is to the larger, classificatory group of all
those (including the 'lower classes") who were excluded from any direct or
indirect participation in the political decision-making processes of the commu-
nity.
Transfbrmations of Western Societies 7.5
world by the common traditions of the Stii~zdestaat.~~The gradual
integration of the national since the French Revolution
reflects these traditions
cussed in terms of the
seded by concepts of group func b n which presuppose the ideal of
7equality, except where medieval connotations linger on. The term
"plebiscite" refers to the direct vote on a?zi77zportant pzchlic isnce by all
qzcalified electors of a community. The broader the community, the-
more minimal the qualifications sti ulated for the electors, and hence
the larger the number of persons s anding in a direct relationship to
public authority, the more will t e plebiscitarian principle conflictIwith the functional. The specific eaning of both principles varies
p.naturally with the definitions of group-specific activities and the ex-
tent and qualifications of community membership.
30 So much so that the historian Otto Ha'tze denies the indigenous development
"itof consritutionalisrn anywhere else. See 31s "Weltgeschichtliche Vorbedingungen
der ReprIsentatiwerfassung))' in Stant Velfasmng (Gijttingen: Vandenhoeck
& Ruprecht, 1962),pp. 140-185.
in terms of the distinction between
the representative and the
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
76 Nation-Building and Citizenship Transforplations of Western Societies 77
Various --accomn_~!d>ti~-mbepeen the functional and plebiscitarian
principle have characterized the sequence of enactments and codifica-
tions through which citizenship became national in many countries of
Western Europe. T o examine this development comparatively the
several rights of citizenship must be distinguiched and analyzed. In
study of Citizenship and Social Class, T. H. Marshall formulates a
threefold-typology-- of rights:
-civil rights such as "liberty of person, freedom of speech, thought and
faith, the right to own property and to conclude valid contracts, and the
right to jusuce";
-$oliticnl rights such as the franchise and the right of access to public
office;
-social rights ranging from "the right to a modicum of economic welfare
and security to the right to share to the full in the social heritage and to
live the life of a civilized being according to the standards prevailing in
the society." 32
Four sets of public institutions correspond to these three types of---- - -- -
rights:
tbe courts, for the safeguarding of civil rights and, specitically, for the
protection of all rights extended to the less articulate members of the na-
tional community;
the local and national represeyztative bodies as avenues of access to par-
ticipation in public decision-making and legislation;
the social services, to ensure some minimum of protection against pov-
erty, sickness, and other misfortunes, and the schools, to make it possible
for all members of the community to receive at least the basic elements of
an education.-
Initially, these rights of citizenship emerge with the establishment--- -. _.__
of equal rights under the law: -The individual is free to conclude
valid contracts, to acquire, and dispose of, property. Legal equality
advances at the expense of legal protection of inherited privileges.
Each man now possesses the right to act as an independent unit;
however, the law only defines his legal capacity, but is silent on his
ability to use it. In addition, civil rights are extended to illegitimate
children, foreigners, and Jews; the pririciple of legal equality helps to
eliminate hereditary servitude, equalize the status of husband and
wife, circumscribe the extent of parental power, facilitate divorce, and
32 The essay referred to has been reprinted in T. H. Marshall, Clnss, Citizen-
ship and Social Development (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc.,
1964), pp. 71-72. The following discussion is greatly indebted to Professor
Marshall's analysis.
legalize civil marriage.83 ~ccordinE/l~,the extension of civil rights
benefits the inarticulate sections of the population, giving a positive
libertarian meaning to the legal reco&tion of individuality.
Still, this gain of legal equality stabds side by side with the fact of
social and economic inequality. Tbcquevi1le and others point out
that in medieval society many depe 1 dent persons were protected in
some measure against the harshness of life by custom and paternal
nbenevolence, albeit at the price of personal subservience. The newIfreedom of the wage contract quickly destroyed whatever protection
powers are guaranteed in the
ini-liv~dual~inhis use of these
1899: "Ourcodes of-private
assigns to the individual as are indispen-
sable to the this sense the
-
or insecurity that should be
should be used to alleviate
them. The spoltesmen of a
answer this question within civil rights.
pdische Privatrecktsgeschic13te (Basel: Halbing and Lichtenhahn, 1954). A
more extended treatment is contained in ~rknzWieacker, Privntrechtsgeschichte
der Neuzeit (Gottingen: Vandenhoeclc & 1952), esp. pp. 197-216 and
passim.
I34Alexis de Tocaueville. De?rzacracu i~zAmerica (New TTnpb. 1 T ; n t n r r ~ Rnnlrc
' -"5" """"Y3
,I&pp. 187-f90. '
ton Menger, The Right to
an and Co., 1899),pp. 3-4.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
78 Nation-Building and Citizenship
Having won legal recognition for the exercise of individual rights,
they insist that to remain legitimate the government must abide by the
rule of law. It is consistent with this position that in most European
countries the first Factory Acts seek to protect women and children,
who at the time are not considered citizens in the sense of legal
equality.3" By the same criterion all adult males are citizens because
they have the power to engage in the economic struggle and take care
of themselves. Accordingly, they are excluded from any legitimate
claim to protection. In this way formally guaranteed rights benefit
the fortunate and more fitfully those who are legally defined as un-
equal, while the whole burden of rapid economic change falls upon the
"laboring poor" and thus provides a basis for agitation at an early time.
This agitation is political from the beginning. One of the earliest
results of the legislative protection of freedom of contract is the legis-
lative prohibition of trade unions. But where legislative means are
used both to protect the individual's freedom of contract and deny the
lower classes the rights needed to avail themselves of the same freedom
(i.e., the right of association), the attacks upon inequality necessarily
broaden. Equality is no longer sought through freedom of contract
alone, but through the establishment of social and political rights as
well. The nation-states of Western Europe can look back on longer
or shorter histories of legislative actions and administrative decisions
which have increased the equality of subjects from the merent strata
of the population in terms of their legal capacity and their legal
status.37 For each nation-state and for each set of institutions we can
3~Ideologicalequalitarianism as well as an interest in breaking down familial
restrictions upon the freedom of economic action were presumably the reason
why protection was &st extended to these most inarticulate sections of the
"lower class." For a critical analysis of the German Civil Code of 1888 exclu-
sively in terms of the economic interests its provisions would serve, see Anton
Menger, Das biirgerliche Recht und die besitzlosen Volksklassen (Tiibingen:
H. Laupp'sche Buchhandlung, 1908). The book was originally published in
1890. This perspective omits the self-sustaining interest in formal legality which
is the work of legal professionals and leads to the prolonged conflict between
legal positivism and the doctrine of natural law. See in this respect the analysis
of Max Weber, Law in Econo~zyand Society (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1954), pp. 284-321. See also the illuminating discussion of this point in
Fr. Darmstaedter, Die Grelzzen der Wi~ksanzkeitdes Recktsstaates (Heidelberg:
Carl Winters Universitatsbuchhandlung, 19301, pp. 52-84.
37When all adult citizens are equal before the law and free to cast their vote,
the exercise of these rights depends upon a person's ability and willingness to
use the legal powers to which he is entitled. On the other hand, the legal
status of the citizens involves rights and duties which cannot be voluntarily
Transfbrmations of Western Societies 79
pinpoint chronologies of the pub measures taken and trace the se-
quences of pressures and bargains and maneuvers,
behind each extension of rights be ond the strata of the traditionally
privileged. The extension of vario s rights to the lower classes consti-
tutes a development characteristic of each country. A detailed con-
tsideration of each such develop ent would note the considerable
degree to which legal enactments are denied or violated in practice.
It would thus emphasize how the issue of the civic position of the
ilower classes was faced or evaded in each country, what policy alterna-
tives were under consideration, an by what successive steps the rights
4of citizenship were extended eve tually. A full analysis could il-
luminate each step along the way, ut it would also obscure the over-
all process of nation-building. !
For taken together, the developments of the several European coun-
tries also constitute the transforma /.on from the estate societies of the
eighteenth to the welfare state o the twentieth centuries. A com-
4parative study of this transformation from the standpoint of national
citizenship will inevitably appear abstract if juxtaposed with the spe-
cific chronology and detailed anal sir of successive legislative enact-
ments in each country. H Yoweveq, such a study will have the ad-
vantage of emphasizing the truth hat, considered cumulatively and
Fin the long run, legislative enacqents have extended the rights of
citizenship to the lower classes represent a genuinely com-
parable process in nineteenth- Europe.
The following discussion is of Western Eu-
ropean nation-building: the into the arena
of national politics. Only those licies are considered which have
Pimmediate relevance for lower-class movements seeking to enter na-
tional politic^.'^ The decisions oh the right to form associmionr
and on the right to receive a mininhun of fonnal education are basic,
for these rights set the stage for tte entry of the lower classes and
condition the strategies and activities of lower-class movements once
they are formally allowed to take bart in politics. Next, the actual
rights of participation are analyzed in terms of the extension of the
changed without intervention by the date. A discussion of the conceptual
distinction between capacity as "the legh power of doing" and status as "the
legal state of being" is contained in Graves n, op. cit., pp. 55-57.
438Accordingly, only incidental consideration is given to the initial and the
terminal phases in this process of change: the breakup of estate-societies through
the extension of civil rights and the fin codification and implementation of
Gwelfare rights in our modern, "mass-consumption" societies.
I
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
80 Nation-Building and Citizenship
franchise and the provisions for the secrecy of the vote. Considered
together, the extension of these rights is indicative of what may be
called the civicincorporation of the lower classes.
A Basic Civil Right: The Right of Asso~ifltionand Co7~zzbi7zatio7z
Civil rights are essential to a competitive market economy in that
"they give to each man, as part of his individz~crlstatus, the power to
engage as an independent unit in the economic struggle.'y39 By
taking cognizance only of persons who possess the means to protect
themselves, the law in effect accords civil rights to those who own
property or have assured sources of income. All others stand con-
demned by their failure in the economic struggle according to the
prevailing views of the early nineteenth century. The abstract prin-
ciple of equality underlying the legal and ideological recognition of
the independent individual is often the direct cause of greatly ac-
centuated inequalities. In the present context the most relevant illus-
tration of this consequence is the law's insistence that the wage con-
tract is a contract between equals, that employer and worker are
equally capable of safeguarding their interests. On the basis of this
formal legal equality, workers in many European countries were de-
nied the right to combine for the sake of bargaining with their em-
ployers.
However, this denial of the right to combine raised conceptual
and political djfJiculties from the beginning. Civil rights refer not
only to the rights of property and contract but also to freedom of
speech, thought, and faith which include the freedom to join with
others in the pursuit of legitimate private ends. Such freedoms are
based on the right of association-an accepted legal principle in sev-
eral European countries (France, England, Belgium, Netherlands)
which nevertheless decided to prohibit the workers' right to combine.
It: was held that conditions of work must be fixed by agreements
freely arrived at between individual and individual.*O Such legal
prohibitions were distinguished, however, from the right to form'
religious or political associations in so far as associationsnot specihcdy
prohibited by law were legal. Accordingly, enactments singled out
89 Marshall,op. cit., p. 87. Italics added.
&Oseestatement by Le Chapelier, author of the French act prohibiting trade
unions of July 1791, as quoted in International Labour Office, Freedom of
Associations (ILO Studies and Reports, Series A, No. 28; London: P. S. King
& Son, 1928),p. 11. Fu~therreferences to this five-volume work will be given
in the form ILO Report, with the number and pages cited.
Transformjations of Western Societies 81
workmen of various descriptions regulations in order to
"uphold" the principle of formal
The distinction between
in all countries, however.
the traditional approach to
similar in many European
used to regulate the
trol the tendency to combine in the in-
terest of raising prices or wages. regulation increased in im-
portance as gmld organizations dec though governmental regu-
lations were often made the new problems arising
from a quickening Efforts to cope with these
of the tradi-
successful. These countries remained ~predorninantlyagricultural un-
til well into the nineteenth century. They experienced a remarkable
proliferation of religious, cultural, economic, and political associa-
tions which followed the breakdown of the estate society. Except
for a few cases of violent conflicts, did little or
nothing either to restrict or to
Merences here also in the
unruliness of journeymen
these countries went as far
legislation designed to
workingmen. In tlis
a prohibition would
ciation.
Such reservations
the end of the
over
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
82 Nation-Building and Cidzenship
absolutist approich may be considered t&gethe? with anal
cies elsewhere'which had much the same general effect on
men's combinations. In Italy and Spain restrictions of ass
activity were traditional and local and hardly required s
lative enactments to ensure their implementation. In France, on the
other hand, the plebiscitarian tradition of direct state-citizen relations
led to the promulgation of the famous Loi Le Chapelier in 1791, and
this tendency to restrain all associations was further strengthened
underNapoleon. Here was ample evidence that absolutism and plebis-
citarian rule are mutually compatible.
Finally, in England, the early invidious distinction between asso-
ciations and combinations proved difEcult to maintain in the long
run. The right of association permitted political agitation through
which the prohibition of trade unions could be opposed. Although
the Act of 1824repealing the anti-combination laws was not effeective,
its early passage is evidence of opposition to the harsh prosecution
of workingmen's combinations. W e have seen that these repressive
measures need to be balanced against others in which violations went
unpunished, because employers would not lodge complaints and mag-
istrates would not act in the absence of a complaint.
When the decline of the gwld system together with the increasing
pace of economic development suggested the need for new regula-
tions of master-servant relations and of journeymen's associations, the
several Western European countries responded with three broadly
distinguishable types of policies. The Scandinavian &d Swiss type
continued the traditional organization of crafts into the modern period,
preserving the right of association at the same time that they extended
the statutory regulation of master-servant relations and journeymen's
associations to cope with the new problems. In modified form this
variant represents the medieval concept of liberty as a privilege, a
concept which certainly d o w s for a statutory reinforcement of ex-
isting arrangements. The second, absolutist type is exemplified by
the Prussian prohibition first of journeymen's associations, then of
all secret assemblies, and finally of the newly formed worlcingmen's
combinations-in keeping with the policy of enlightened absolutism
which seeks to regulate all phases of social and economic life. This
type represents a major break with the tradition of liberty as a
corporate privilege in so far as the lring destroys all powers intervening
between himself and his subjects, though this destruction could be
just as thoroughgoing under plebiscitarian auspices. Finally, the lib-
eral policy exemplified by England went from the earlier regulation
of Western Societies 83
of guilds and the to a policy which com-
bined the specific combinations with the
preservation of respects. Thus, lib-
eralism with its and combi-
nation
7
The legal right to form associa ons combines the plebiscitarian 1
with the functional principle. Whenever all citizens possess this right,
we have an instance of plebiscitari~nismin the formal sense that
everyone enjoys the same legal capac ty to act. However, in practice
only some groups of citizens take ad nta e of the opportunity, whileda -large majoriv remain ''unorgaY~d." Thus, in the developing
nation-states of Western Europe private associations exemplify the
functional principle of representation n the basis of common interests,
in contrast with the medieval estat s that collectively enjoyed the
privilege of exercising certain public rights in return for a common
legal liability. It was recognized ea ly that organizations based on
common economic interestes would perpetuate or re-establish tor-
!
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
84 Nation-Building and Citizenship
porate principles analogous t o those of the medieval period." In
his argument against mutual benefit societies, L e Chapelier expresses
this view in his 1791 speech before the Constituent Assembly to
which reference was made earlier:
The bodies in question have the avowed object of procuring relief for
workers in the same occupation who fall sick or become unemployed. But
let there be no mistake about this. It is for the nation and for public
officials on its behalf to supply work to those who need it for their liveli-
hood and to succour the sick. . . . It should not be permissible for citizens
in certain occupations to meet together in defence of their pretended com-
mon interests. There must be no more guilds in the State, but only the
individual interest of each citizen and the general interest. N o one shall
be allowed to arouse in any citizen any kind of intermediate interest and
to separate him from the public weal through the medium of corporate
interests.42
This radically plebiscitarian position which does not tolerate the
organization of any "intermediate interest7' is dficdt to maintain
consistently. For the individualistic tendencies of the economic
sphere, which are partly responsible for this position, are likewise
responsible for legal developments which undermine it. A growing
exchange economy with its rapid diversification of transactions gives
rise t o the question h o w the legal significance of each transaction
can b e determined unambiguously. In part, this question is answered
41 We do not go into the question of the continuity or discontinuity between
medieval and modern corporations, a problem treated at length in the writings
of Figgis, Gierke,Maitland, and others.
4zQuoted in ILO Report, No. 29, p. 89. Le Chapelier's statement reflects the
principle enunciated by Rousseau: "If, when the people, sufEciently informed,
deliberated, there was to be no communication among them, from the grand
total of tr&g Werences the general will would always result, and their
resolutions be always good. But when cabals and partial associations are formed
at the expense of the great association, the will of each such association,
though general with regard to its members, is privme with regard to the State:
it can then be said no longer that there are as many voters as men, but only
as many as there are associations. By this means the dserences being less
numerous, they produce a result less general. Finally, when one of these asso-
ciations becomes so large that it prevails over all the rest, you have no longer
the sum of many opinions dissenting in a small degree from each other, but
one great dictating dissentient; from the moment there is no longer a general
will, and the predominating opinion is only an individual one. It is therefore
of the utmost importance for obtaining the expression of the general will, that
no partial society should be formed in the State, and that every citizen should
speak his opinion entirely from himself. . . ." See Jean Jacques Rousseau, T h e
Social Contract (New York: Hafner Publishing Company, 19571, pp. 26-27.
Transfor ations of Western Societies 85JI
by attributing "legal personality" td organizations such as business
firms and hence b y separating the 1 gal spheres of the stockholders
and officials from the legal sphere of he organization itself.43 Incor-
poration establishes the separate legal liability of the organization and
thus limits the liability of its individu 1 members or agents. Although
"limited liability7' was denounced f o a time as an infringement ofiindividual responsibility, massive intdrem were served by this n e w
device and objections based o n the co 'cept of obligation were quickly
overcome. Incorporation is a most b p n r t a n t breach in the strictly
plebis~citarian.position.It represents first limitation of that radical
individualism which stands f o r
law and against the formation of
Marshall states that in the
been . . .not from the
dividuals [as in the
of individuals t o
tion and the
trusteeship," the and direct political
participation by that in recent dec-
ades this earlier restriction development whose
significance f o r citizenship
T.hese considerations provide 1 background f o r an under-
standing of the special position unions. A s Marshall points
out, trade unions:
. . . did not seek or obtain incorporati They can, therefore, exercise
vital civil rights collectively on behalf their members without formal
collective responsibility, while the responsibility of workers in
relation to contract is largely unenforcea le. . . .*=
ti43 Weber, Llnu in Economy md Society! pp/ 156157 ff. The editors have added
referencesto the extensive literature in th~sfield.
"4 Marshall, op. cit., p. 94.
46 Ibid., p. 93. The following discussion is based on Marshall's analysis on pp.
93-94, but our emphasis differs somewhat.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
86 Nation-Building and Citizenship
If we take the prohibition or severe restriction of combinations as
our starting point, then the development of trade unions also exem-
plifies the movement of civil rights from the representation of indi-
viduals to that of communities. This collective representation of the
economic interests of the members arises from the inability of work-
ers to safeguard their interest individually. Trade unions seek to
raise the economic status of their members. The worlrers organize
in order to attain that level of economic reward to which they feel
entitled-a level which in practice depends on the capacity to organ-
ize and to bargain for "what the traffic will bear." These practical
achievements of trade unions have a far-reaching effect upon the
status of workers as citizens. For through trade unions and collective
bargaining the right to combine is used to assert "basic claims to
the elements of social justice." 48 In this way the extension of citizen-
ship to the lower classes is given the very special meaning that as
citizens the members of these classes are "entitled" to a certain stand-
ard of well-being, in return for which they are only obliged to
dischargethe ordinary duties of citizenship.
The legalization of trade unions is an instance of enabling legis-
lation. It pemzits members of the lower classes to organize and
thus obtain an equality of bargaining power which a previously irn-
posed, formal legal equality has denied them. But to achieve this
end it becomes necessary, as we saw, to discriminate in favor of
"combinations" by allowing them legal exemptions without which
the disadvantaged groups are unable to organize effectively. In other
words, civil rights are used here to enable the lower classes to par-
ticipate more effectively than would otherwise be the case in the eco-
nomic and political struggle over the distribution of the national in-
come.
However, many members of the lower classes either do not avail
themselves of the opportunities afforded them by the law or are pre-
vented from doing so by the exclusivist or neo-corporatist devices
of established trade unions. Hence, in eeffect legal opportunities have
turned into privileges available to workers who are willing and able
to organize in order to advance their economic interests. Such privi-
leges are buttressed, in turn, by legal, extralegal, and illegal devices
to make union membership obligatory or nonmembership very costly.
Thus, the right to combine turns out to be a "privilege of those or-
ganized in trade unions." In a sense this is a measure of the weakness
of corporatist tendencies in modern Western societies, since the same
45 Ibid., p. 94.
Trans lormations of Western Societies 87rright more generally applied d mean that every adult belongs
to an organization
to combine has
effectiveness of
it is often
which we now turn.
A Boric Social Right: The ag4tto an Elementary Education
to the "right to
are deprived of ele-
mentary eduction, access to appears as a precon-
dition without which all under the law remain of no
avail to the uneducated. rudiments of education to
the illiterate appears as an Nonetheless, social rights
G-Zstinctive in that the individual to
decide whether or not advantages. Like the
women and children,
and similar welfare
indistinguishable
elementary
school.
47 This formulation is indebted to the erceptive analysis by Joseph Tussman,
Obligation and the Body Politic York: Oxford University Press, 1960),
Chap. 11.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
88 Nation-Building and Citizenship
sensus which is at the root of the direct relationshi9 between the
central organs of the nation-state and each nzember of the com;mu-
nity. But in now turning to a consideration of social rights, we find
that this plebiscitarian principle of equality before the sovereign na-
tion-state involves duties as well as rights. Each eligible individual
is obliged to participate in the services provided by the state. It
is somewhat awkward to use the term "plebiscitarian" for this obli-
gatory aspect of citizenship as well. Yet there is a family resemblance
between the right of all citizens to participate (through the fran-
chise) in the decision-making processes of government and the duty
of all parents to see to it that their children in the designated age
groups attend school. In the fully developed welfare state citizens
as voters decide to provide the services in which citizens as parents
of school children are then obliged to participate. The right to vote
is permissive, whereas the benefits of school attendance are obligatory.
But both are principles of equality which establish a direct relation-
ship between the central organs of the nation-state and each member
of the community, and this direct relationship is the specific mean-
ing of national citizenship.
It may be useful to reiterate the major distinctions at this point.
There is first the distinction between an @@get and a-@e$~ladan
between- the nation-state and the citizen. W e have discussed the in-
direct relationship in the preceding section in connection with the
rights to association and the right to combine. Although these civil
rights are in principle available to all, in practice they are claimed
by classes of persons who share certain social and economic attri-
butes. Thus, group (or functional) representation is of continued
importance even after the earlier, medieval principle of privileged
jurisdictions has been replaced by equality before the law. In now
turning to the direct relationship between the nation-state and the
citizen, we consider social rights before we turn to the discussion of
; political rights. The extension of social rights with its emphasis upon
i obligation may leave privilege intact and broadens the duties and
benefits of the people without necessarily encouraging their social
mobilization, whereas the extension of the franchise unequivocally
destroys privilege and enlarges the active participation of the people
in public affairs.
There is clear indication that on the Continent the &rincjp&-of-an
elementary education for the lower classes emerged as a by-product
of enlightened absolutism^ In Denmark, for example, Frederick-IV
established elementary schools on his own domains as early as 1721
ITransfoytions of Western Societies 89
and provided them with suf3icient and a permanently em-
ployed teaching staff. Attempts with this policy
failed, because the landed
the employment and
for teacher salaries on
ing the principal
48The preceding two paragraphs are bs5d on A. PeteaiIie, Das dffentliihe
Unterrichtswesen (Vol. III of Hand- und Lehrbuch der Staatswissenschaften;
Leipzig: C. L. Hirschfeld, 1897), I, pp. 203-204, 158-166, and passim.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
90 Nation-Building and Citizenship
loyalty for king and country in the masses of the population. It is
well to remember, however, that in the field of military recruitment
the same effort to mobilize the people in the wars of liberation led
to great controversies and provoked a very strong reaction among
ultra-conservatives, once the immediate danger was passed.4g Thus,
enlightened absolutism may be considered the reluctant or equivocal
pioneer of extending social rights to the people. Absolutist rule en-
dorses the principle that nothing should intervene between the l&g
and his people, and hence that the king out of his own free will dis-
tributes benefits among them. But absolutism naturally insists that
the people are the king's subjects; it rejects the idea of rights and
duties derived from and owed to the sovereign authority of the na-
tion-~tate.~~
The ideas of national citizenship and a sovereign national authority
are basic concepts of liberalism. They have special relevance for
education, because in Europe teaching had been in the hands of the
clergy for centuries. Accordingly, the schools were under clerical
rather than political authority so that pupils to receive an education
are subject to this special jurisdiction. This clerical control is de-
stroyed, where absolutist rulers or the nation-state assume authority
over the schools. In Lutheran Prussia such secular control over edu-
cation could be imposed without difficulty. When ministers of the
church as well as teachers are subject to the sovereign authority of
the king, it is easy to recruit the ministers into the teaching pro-
- fession. But when, as in France, the Catholic clergy is under an
authority separate from that of the state, the establishment of a na-
tional system of education and hence of a direct relationship between
each citizen and the government becomes incompatible with the ex-
' 4gFor details see the excellent study by Gerhard Ritter, Staatskz~nstund Kricg-
sha~zdwerk(Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1959), I, Chaps. 4 and 5.
5oThe significance of absolutist regimes for elementary education varied with
the prevailing religious beliefs of the country. In Austria, elementary education
was organized by the government as early as 1805, with the clergy acting as the
supervisory agent of the state. In Catholic countries with less religious unity
than Austria such an approach did not prove possible; in France, for example,
the traditional Catholic claim to superintend education was challenged in the
1760's with the suppression of the Jesuits and the endorsement of a nationally
organized system of lay education. (See p. 91.) Again, in countries with
Protestant state churches (Prussia, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) little or
no conflict developed as the unity of church and state in the person of the
monarch allowed for the ultimate authority of government over eIementary
education, with ministers of the church acting in this field as agents of the
monarch or (later) of a ministry for education and ecclesiasticalaffairs.
isting system. In his Essai
La Chalotais opposes the
that the teaching of
secular ~rofession.
are laymen rather
cities while the
52 See page 84.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
92 Nation-Building and Citizenship
(though they did not cease), another indication of the relative weak-
ness of corporatist tendencies.
It is probable, therefore, that systems of national education develop
as widely as they do, because the demand for elementary education
cuts across the spectrum of political beliefs. It is sustained by c_on-
servatives who fear the people's inherent unruliness which must be
curbed by instruction in the fundamentals of religion and thus instill
loyalty to king and country. Liberals argue that the nation-state de-
mands a citizenry educated by organs of the state. And populist
spokesmen claim that the masses of the people who help to create
the wealth of the country should share in the amenities of civiliza-
tion.
Compulsory elementary education becomes a major controversial
issue, however, when governmental authority in this field comes into
conflict with organized religion. Traditionally, the Catholic Church
'regards teaching as one of its inherent powers, with the work of in-
struction being conducted by the religious orders. In this view the
corporate principle is paramount in so far as the Church administers
man's "spiritual estate" and in this realm possesses the exclusive right
and duty of representation. This principle was challenged during the
eighteenth century in France, and conflict over clerical or lay con-
trol of education has lasted to this day. Similar conlicts have also
persisted in Protestant countries in which the population is sharply
divided over religious issues. That is, a national system of ele-
mentary education has been opposed wherever the Church or various
religious denominations have insisted upon interposing their own edu-
cational facilities between their adherents and the state. Thus, such
countries as England, Belgium, and the Netherlands have been the
scene of protracted struggles over the question whether or under
what conditions the national government should be permitted to give
assistance or exercise authority in the field of elementary education.
In England, for example, qoluntary contributions in aid of education
amounted, in 1858, to double the amount of support provided by the
govei-nment. Since 1870 a new system of state schools has been de-
veloped, not as a substitute for the schools based on voluntary con-
tributions, but in addition to them. Thus, until well into the mod-
ern period local and voluntary efforts preserve elements of "functional
representation," despite the steady growth of a national (plebiscitar-
ian) system of educati~n.~~Perhaps the most outstanding example
68 See the historical sketch of the English educational development in Ernest
Barker, The Development of the Public Services in Western Europe (New
Transformations of Western Societies 93
I
of the corporate or
by the Netherlands
olic, one Calvinist,
here is that all three systems are
three are based on the principle attendance, thus neatly
combining the plebiscitarian the representa- ,
tive principle in the control over the
educational process.
Political Rights: T h e Franchise an# the Secret Vote
This strain between estate orienta ion and nation orientation in the
9determination of policy is even m re apparent in the debates and
enactments concerning rights of po itical participation: the right to
serve as a representative, the right to vote for representatives, and the
right of-independent choice among a1 ernatives.
The basic condition for the dev lopment toward universal rights
Iof participation was the z~nificationof the national system of repre-
sentation. In the late Middle Ages he principle of territorial repre-
sentation had on the Continent inc easingly given way to a system
of representation by estates: each state sent its separate represen-
tatives to deliberate at the center of erritorial authority and each had
iits separate assembly.54 Only in England was the original system of
territorial representation retained: t i e House of Commons was not
an assembly of the burgher estates 1 ut a body of legislators repre-
senting the constituent localities of the realm, the counties and the
boroughs. The greater openness of English society made it possible
to keep up the territorial channels o representation, and this, in turn,
set the stage for a much smoothe transition to a unified regime
of equalitarian democra~y.~~
iYork: Oxford University Press, 1944), p 85-93 and the comparative account
by Robert Ulich, T h e Edzccation of Nati ns (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1961),pssi7n. 154The primary authority on the history o corporate estates and their represen-
ftation is still Otto von Gierke, Das dentsch Genossenschaft~~echt(Berlin: Weid-
1mann, 18681,I, pp. 534581.
56 This question of territorial vs. functions representation is at the heart of the -
debate over the reasons for the survival o Parliament during the age of abso-
lutism. Otto Hintze has stressed the his orical continuities between medieval
and modern forms of representation an1has argued that the two-chamber
polities beyond the reach of the Carolingan Empire offered the best basis for
ithe development of pluralist, parliamentary rule. See his "Typologie der
stiindischen Verfassungen des Abendlandes," Staat und Verfmsung, pp. 120-139.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
94 Nati0.n-Building and Citizenship
Regardless of the principle of representation in these .;encie~zsr k -
giwzes, only the .economically independent heads of households could
fake-;& in public life. This participation was a right they derived
not from their membership in any national community but from
their ownership of territory and capital or from their status within
legally defined functional corporations such as the nobility, the church,
or the @ds of merchants or artisans. There was no representation
of individuals: the members of the assemblies represented recognized
stakes in the system, whether in the form of p r o p e q holdings or in
the form of professionalprivileges.
,The French Revolution~broughtabout a fundamental change in the
-----....--- -
concepuon of^re&~esentkion:the basic unit was no longer the house-
hold, the property, or the corporation, but the i7zdividzcfil citizen;-
and representation was no longer channeled throiigh separate &&-
tional bodies but through a unified nutio~zqlnssencbly of legislators.+---- ----
The law of A u p t 11, 1792, went so far as to give the franchise
to all French males over 21 who were not servants, paupers, or vagu-
bonds, and the Constitution of 1793 did not even exclude paupers if
they had resided more than six months in the ca7zto?z. The Restoration
did not bring back representation by estates: instead the rkgime censi-
taire introduced an abstract monetq-_criterion-, - which cut decisively
across the earlier criteria of ascr~bedstatus.
A new phase in this development opened up with the Revolution
of 1848 and the rapid spread of movements for representative de-
mocracy through most of Europe. Napoleon I11 demonstrated the
possibilities of plebiscitarian rule, and leaders of the established elites
became increasingly torn between their fears of the consequences
of rapid extensions of the suffrage to the lower classes and their fasci-
nation with the possibilities of strengthening the powers of the nation-
state through the mobilization of the worlring class in its service.60
These conflicts of strategy produced a great variety of transitional
compromises in the different countries. The starting points for
these developments were the provisions of the Sta7zdestuut and the
postrevolutionary rkgime ceasitnire, and the end points were the prom-
. 6B See H. Gollwitzer, "Der Casarismus Napoleons III im Wriderhall der offent-
lichen Meinung Deutschlands," Historische Zeitsckrift, Vol. 152 (1952), 23-76.
In a number of countries the demands for universal manhood suffrage became
intimately tied in with the need for universal conscription. In Sweden the
principal argument for the breakup of the four-estate Riksdng was the need
for a strengthening of national defense. In the Swedish sufrage debates, the
slogan "one man, one vote, one gun" reflects this _tie up b ~ ~ e e nfranchise and-
military recruitment.
--
Trans,1ormadons of Western Societies 95
ulgations of universal adult But the steps taken and the
paths chosen from the one other varied markedly from
country to country and dserences in the dominant
values and character of
W e may conveniently disting&sh five major sets of criteria used
in limiting the franchise during t& &ansitional period: (1) traditional
- IestBFZriteria: restriction of franchise to heads of households within
ps as defined by law; (2) rkgi~~ze
c ~ t t u i r e :restrictions value of land or capital or on the
amounts of yearly taxes on and/or income; (3) rkgime cupnci-
restrictions by education, or appointment to
public office; (4) criteria: restrictions to heads
of households of a minimum given volume
rent; (5) -residence
rkgi7ne censitaire and
67The details of these developments hive been set out in such compendia u
Georg Meyer, Das parla7?zentarische nldrecht (Berlin: Haering, 1901), and
Karl Braunias, Dns parla7zemnrische Wn3lrecht (Berlin: de Gruyter, 19321, Vol.
2.
t
68 See Stein Rokkan, "Geography, and Social Class: Cross-Cutting Cleav- 1 ,
ages in Norwegian Politics," in S. and Stein Rolcltan, eds., Party Sys- i.
tenzs aad Voter Alignments (New Free Press of Glencoe, forthcorn- i ;
"g) .
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
96 Nation-Building and Citizenship
territorial-functional division was the king's officials, the effective
rulers of the nation for several decadesto come.
Much more complex compromises had to be devised in multinational
polities such as --Austria.- - In the old Habsburg territories the typical
Landtag had consisted of _four cz~riae:the nobles, the knights, the
prelates, and the representatives of cities and markets. The Februar-
patent of 1861 kept the division into four curiae, but transformed
the estate criteria into criteria ofjntecgt representation. The nobles
and the knights were succeeded by a cvria of the largest landowners.
The ecclesiastical estate was broadened into a curia of Virilstimen
representing universities as well as dioceses. The burgher estate was
no longer exclusively represented by spokesmen for cities and mar-
kets, but also through the chambers of c o m e r c e and the profes-
sions: this was the first recognition of a corporatist principle which
was to become of central importance in the ideological debates in
Austria in the twentieth century. T o these three was added a peasant
division: this was new in the national system; direct peasant repre-
sentation of the type so well known in the Nordic countries had only
existed in Tyrol and Vorarlberg. The most interesting feature of the
Austrian sequence of compromises was the handling of the lower
classes so far excluded from participation in the politics of the na-
tion. True to their tradition of functional representation, the Austrian
statesmen did not admit these new citizens on a $ar with the already
enfranchised, but placed them in a new, 2 fifth curia, die allgenzeine
This, however, was only a transitional meas~e-eleven
years later even the Austrian Abgeordnetenhaus fell in with the
trend toward equalitarian mass democracy and was transformed into
a unified national assembly based on universal manhood ~uffrage.~"
The rise of commercial and industrial capitalism favored the spread
of the rkgime censitaire. The ideological basis was Benjamin Con-
stant's argument that the affairs of the national community must be
left to those with "real stakes" in it through the possession of land
or through investments in business. The principe capacitaire was
essentially an extension of this criterion: the franchise was accorded
not only to those who own land or have invested in business but also
:58 A useful account of these developments in Austria is found in Ludwig Boyer,
Wahlrecht in iisterreich (Vienna, 1961), pp. 80-85. It is interesting to compare
the Austrian mixture of medieval estate-orientation and modern corporatism
with the Russian provisions for the Duma in 1906; see Max Weber's detailed
analysis in "Russlands Ubergang nun Scheinkonstitutionalismus" Gesammelte
Politische Schriften (Tiibingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1958),pp. 66-126.
Transformations of Western Societies 97
I
in his statement: "Suffrage . . .
should be reserved to the have judgrrnent enough to
understand who would and independ-
elzce enough to stick to
This question of
T. H. Aschehoug, Norges nuverende Stvtsforfatning (Christiania: Aschehoug,
1875), Vol. I, p. 280.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
98 Nation-Building and Citizenship
had obviously served to bolster the power of the Gutsbesitzel; par-
ticularly east of the Elbe: the law had simply multiplied by 72 the
number of votes at their disposal, since they counted on being able
to control without much dZEculty the behavior of their dependents
and their workers at the polls.61 Bismarck detested the three-class
system for its emphasis on abstract monetary criteria and its many
injustices, but he was convinced that a change to equal suffrage for
all men would not affect the power structure in the countryside:
on the contrary it would strengthen even further the landed interests
against the financial. Generally, in--- the -countryside the extensions
oLthe suffrage tended to strengthen the conservative forces.e2
TEE was &uch more uncertainty about the consequences of an
extended suffragefor the politics of the urban areas. The emerf&ce
and growth of a class of wage elrrners outside the i7nmediate kozcse-
hold of the employer raised new problems for the definition of politi-
cal citizenship. In the established socio-economic terminology their
status was one of dependence, but it was not evident that they would
inevitably follow their employers politically. The crucial battles in
the development toward universal suffrage concerned the status of
these emerging strata within the political community. A great va-
riety of transitional compromises were debated and several were ac-
tually tried out. The basic strategy was to underscore the structural
differentiations within the wageearning strata. Some varieties of
re'gime censitaire in fact admitted the better paid wage workers, par-
ticularly if they had houses of their The householder and
lodger franchise in Britain similarly served to integrate the better-off
6lFor a recent detailed account see Th. Nipperdey, Die Organisation der
deutscben Parteie~zvor 1918 (Diisseldorf: Droste, 1961), Chap. V. For a parallel
with conditions in the similarly structured rural areas of Brazil, see the chapter
by Emilio Wiuems in-Arnold Rose, ed., The Institutions of Advrrnced Societies
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1958), p. 552: "The main func_nions
of mtfrrrge was that of preserving the existing power suucture. Within the
traditional pattern, sdrage added opportunities for displaying aid reinforcing
feudal loyalty. At the same time, it reinforced and legalized the political
status of the landowner."
6zSee D. C. Moore, "The Other Face of Reform," Victorian Studies, V (Sep-
tember 1961), pp. 7-34 and G. Kitson Clarlr, T h e Making of Victorian England
(London: ~etGGen,1962),especiallyChap. W.
63 A special tax census taken in Norway in 1876 indicates that more than one-
quarter of the urban workers who were on the tax rolls were enfranchised
under the system adopted in 1814: by contrast only 3 per cent of the worlrers
in the rural areas had been given the vote. See Statistisk Centralbureau ser. C.
No. 14, 1877,pp. 340-341.
Western Societies 99
to keep out only the "real prole-
ers without established local ties.
ents has served similar functions
rnly in the provisions
for local elections.
ontrol the onrush of
'eigbted suffrage and
the Austrian Icz~rien
age is granted, but
es are inhitesimal
or financial elite.
erhaps the British
and for owners
extra votes are
bstract chance to influence the
e brings to the fore the in-
across localities of very dif-
e political arena also raises
of electiorzs. Sociologically
g of the independence of
nders of estate traditions
cally dependent subjects
olitical judgments and
ougfi the sale of votes
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
100 Nation-Building and Citizenship
and through violent intimidation. Corrupt practices were, of course,
widespread in many countries long before the extension of the
suffrage, but the enfranchisement of large sections of the lower classes
generally provides added incentive to reforms in the administration
and control of elections. The secrecy of the ballot is a central prob-
lem in this debate.64
The traditional notion was that rhe vote was a public act and only
to be entrusted to men who could openly stand by their opinions. The
Prussian system of oral voting was defended in these terms, but was
maintained for so long largely because it proved an easy way of con-
trolling the votes of farm laborers.
The secret ballot essentially appeals to the liberal urban mentality:
it fits as another element into the anonymous, privatized c u l d o f
the city, described by Georg Sirnrnel. The decisive factor, how-
ever, is the emergence of the lower-class vote as a factor in national
politics and the need to neutralize the threatening working-class
organizations: the provisions for secrecy isolate the dependent worker- ---
not only from his superiors but also from his peers. Given the state
of electoral statistics, it is very diEicult to determine with any exacti-
tude the effects of secrecy on the actual behavior of workers at the
polls. But it seems inherently likely, given a minimum amount of
cross-class communications, that secrecy helps- - .to reduce-- the--- likeli-
hood of a polarization of political life on the basis of social c h .
In this respect the secret ballot representi the national aid plebisci-
tarian principle of civic integration, in contrast to working-class
organizations which exemplify the principle of functional representa-
on. That is, t_heclaims of trade-uniomand labor parties which seek__--
ecognition for the rights of the fourth estate ar_e counterbalanced-b-)r
he claims of the national community and its spokesmen. The pro-
vision for secret voting puts the &dividual before a personal choice
and makes him at least temporarily independent of his immediate
environment: in the voting booth he can be a national citizen. The
provisions for secret voting make it possible for the inarticulate rank
and file to escape the pressure for political partisanship and at the
same time put the onus of political visibility on the activists within
the worlhg-class movement. In sociological terms we can say, there-
fore, that the national electoral system opens up channels for the ex-
pression of secret loyalties while the political struggle makes it neces-
64A recent one-nation account of the development of standards for the con-
trol of elections is Cornelius O'Leary, The Elimination of Corrupt Practices
in British Electio~zr,1868-1911 (Odord: Clarendon Press, 1962).
Transforrpations of Western Societies 101
Isary for the party activist to publicize his views and expose himself to
censure where he deviates from the "bstablishment."
ICONCLUDING CONSIDERATIOYS
The extension of citizenship to lower classes of Western Europe
can be viewed from several
of the comparison and the modern political
structure the trends toward
constitution-
.-
"ome socialist parties try to counteraci these effects of secret voting by
stablishing intimate ties with trade unions. Note in this respect the conmoversy
British trade unions as discussed
Party since 1945 (London:
who wish to be excused
payment hand a
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
102 Nation-Building and Citizenship
another in order to advance their claims as effectively as possible, and
such associations reflect (or even intensify) the inequalities of the
social structure. The preceding discussion has shown that the relations
between the plebiscitarian and functional ideas are frequently para-
doxical.
Formal equality before the law at first benefits only those whose
social and economic independence enables them to take advantage
of their legal rights. Efforts to correct this inequality take many
forms, among them regulations which enable members of the lower
classes to avail themselves of the right of association for the rep-
resentation of their economic interests. However, these regulations
in turn do not reach those individuals or groups who will not or cannot
take advantage of the right of association. Accordingly, equality
before the law unwittingly divides a population in a new way. Fur-
ther legal provisions attempt to deal with remaining inequalities or
cope with newly emerging ones, for example, the institution of the
public defender where the defendant is unable to take advantage of
his right to counsel, or efforts to protect the rights of shareholders
who are unable to do so under existing legislation. As yet there are
only debates concerning the best ways of protecting members of trade
unions against possible violations of their individual rights by the or-
_g-anizationwhich represents their economic interests. The principle
of formal legal equality may be called "plebiscitarian" in the sense
that the state directly establishes each individual's "legal capacity."
In addition, special provisions seek to reduce in various ways the
unequal chances of individuals to use their rights under the law. In
the latter case the rule-making authorities "represent" the interests
of those who do not or cannot use their legal powers.--
T h e right and duty to receive an elementary education may be
considered another way of equalizing the capacity of all citizens to
avail themselves of the rights to which they are entitled. Although
elementary education provides only a minimal facility in this re-
spect, it is perhaps the most universally approximated implementation
of national citizenship, all other rights being either more permissive
- or selective in character. As such, public elementary education ex-
emplifies the plebiscitarian component of the nation-state, since
school attendance is not only incumbent upon all children of a cer-
tain age group but also depends on the financial contribution of all
taxpayers.e6 But here again, formally instituted equalities give rise
---oa Children attending elementary school are more numerous than taxpayers
since school attendance allows for no exemptions as does the tax system. In-
of Western Societies 103
to or are the occasion for Those concel-ned
with teaching and the together because
of common These specialists
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
104 Nation-Building and Citizenship
large part abandoned once the right to vote has become universal.
Yet the plebiscitarian principle of the right to direct participation by
all adults as eligible voters is quite compatible with an acceptance
of group differences and various indirect forms of functional repre-
sentation. The electoral process itself is greatly influenced by the
social differentiation of the voting public, and it is supplemented
at many points by other influences on policy formation, many of
them depending on special interest groups. Social dif3erentiation and
interest groups result in modifications of the plebiscitarian principle
and in new inequalities which may in turn provoke countermeasures
in order to protect the plebiscitarian principle of equality of all adults
as eligible voters.
-Accordingly, the extension of citizenship to the lower classes in-
volves at many levels an institutionalization of abstract criteria of
equality which give rise both to new inequalities and new measures
to deal with these ancillary consequences. The system of representa-
tive institutions characteristic of the Western European tradition re-
mains intact as long as this tension between the plebiscitarian idea
and the idea of group-representation endures, as long as the contra-
diction between abstract criteria of equality and the old as well as
new inequalities of the social condition is mitigated by ever new
and ever p d a l compromises. The system is destroyed when, as in
the totalitarian systems of recent history, these partial resolutions are
abandoned in the interest of implementing the plebiscitarian principle
alone under the aegis of a one-party state.
THE political life, the "great
the immediate premodern pe-
riod, individualistic as contrasted traditional authority relation-
ships, social protest in the
medieval period, the
structures and be-
that exceeds the
are of limited
.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
106 Nation-Building and Citizenship
Edmund Burke's dictum concerning society as a partnership applies
to this context. "As the ends of such a partnership cannot be ob-
tained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between
those who are living, but between those who are living, those who
are dead, and those who are to be born." In the medieval conception
the "building block" of the social order is the family of hereditary
privilege, whose stability over time is the foundation of right and of
authority, while the rank-order of society and its transmission through
inheritance regulates the relations among such families and between
them and the supreme ruler.
The modern nation-state presupposes that this link between gov-
ernmental authority and inherited privilege in the hands of families
of-notables is broken. Access to important political and administra--
tive posts in the governments of nation-states can be facilitated by
wealth and high social position through their effect on social contacts
and educational opportunities. But facility of access is not the same
as the prerogative which aristocratic families in medieval politics
claim by virtue of their "antiquity of blood," to use Machiavelli's
phrase. For the decisive criterion of the Western nation-state is the
substantial separation between the social structure_and_~heexercise of
judicial and administrative functions. Major functions of government
such as the adjudication of legal disputes, the collection of revenue,
the control of currency, military recruitment, the organization of the
postal system, the construction of public facilities, and others have
been removed from the political struggle in the sense that they cannot
be appropriated on a hereditary basis by privileged estates and on
s basis parceled out among competing jurisdictions. Politics ceases
be a struggle over the distribution of sovereign powers whenever
e orderly dominion over a territory and its inhabitants is conceived
be the function of one and the same community-the nation-~tate.~
stead, @tics becomes a struggle over the distribution of the na-
duct and over the policies and the administrative imple-
affect that distribution. One unquestioned corollary
e of the nation-state is the development of a body
of officials, whose recruitment and policy execution were separated
1Edrnund Burke, Reflections ofi the Revolzttion. in France (Gateway Editions,
Inc.; Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 19551, p. 140.
2 See Max Weber, Law in Economy and Society (trans. and ed. by Max Rhein-
stein and E. A. Shils; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954), p. 338 and
passinz. See also Max Weber, T h e Theory of Social a ~ dEconowzzc Organiza-
tion (New York: Oxford University Press, 19471,p. 156.
Administrative uthority in the Nation-State 107Ifrom the previously exis g involvement of officials with
b.yalties, hereditary privileges, and property interest^.^ The
discussion examines this process of bureaucratization and
n turns to an analysis of selecte aspects of the relation between
bstrators and the public in the odern nation-state.
TBUREAUCRATIZATION
I
of Western Europe, we
can best characterize the process by means of a
systematic contrast with the
The patrimonial
nates and officialsin
him.
or the chief himself-. . .
basis of the authority of particular
[or] entirely on the basis of the
3. ". . .Household officials
on a purely patrimonial basis or serfs of the
bTund by any formal rule."
chief. If the recruitment has
ruler's personal household
of benefices which he has
4. Qualification for
sonaL$iment
or favourites.
5. "Household
equipped in the
Generally, their
arative study of administrativ history, in which this process of
is traced since the middle of the seventeenth century, is contained
Barker, T h e Developvzeat of Public Services in Western Eu~ope,
i(New York: Oxford University ress, 1944).
s
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
108 Nation-Building and Citizenship
tion of benefices . . ." and hence a weakening of patrimonial rule
as here defined.
6. Through abrupt changes in appointment and a series of other
arbitrary acts the ruler makes every effort to prevent the identification
of any one household official or favorite with the office he occupies at
a given time.
7. The ruler himself, or his official and favorites who act in his
name, conduct the affairs of government when and if they consider
it appropriate, i.e., either upon payment of a fee or as a unilateral
act of grace.4
Government is considered a mere extension of the ruler's private---- -
domain. W e saw that under patrimonialism arbitrary personal rule
is considered legitimate on the basis of immemorial and sanctified
tradition. But tradition does not legitimize disregard of the sanctions
which consecrate and authenticate tradition. Repeatedly, the patri-
monial ruler confronts the task of balancing one principle against an-
other. This consideration applies to all the conditions enumerated
above: the delegation of authority, the basis of recruitment and re-
muneration, quascation for office, obedience of subordinates to the
ruler or the relative independence of their position, and finally the
degree to which d e r and officials treat official business as an act of
~ersonalindulgence or the performance of that duty which tradition1 "
makes incumbent upon them. In these respects neither personal
arbitrariness-- --- - nor adherence to sanctiiied precedent can be dispensed
S t h . For if arbitrariness comes to prevail, patrimonialism givesway-
to tyranny; if established rights eliminate the arbitrary will of the
ruler, patrimonialism gives way to feudalism or a large realm disinte-
grates into smaller patrimonial domains. Patrimonial rule will endure
as long as these eventualities are avoided, but it is also true that
within this framework arbitrary rule or adherence to sanctified tra-
dition can become dominant.
Weber's cl~aracterizationof patrimonial rule subsumes a great di-
versity ~f historical events, and the paired concepts of sanctified
arbitrariness and sanctified precedent provide an interpretive device
for an analysis of social change. But every concrete exercise of au-
4 The quoted passages are talcen from Max Weber, The Theory of Social and
Economic Organization, pp. 343, 344, and 345. The remaining characteristics
of patrimonial rule are extracted from Max Weber, Wirtschaft zlnd Gesellschaft
(Tiibingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 19251, 11, pp. 679-723. Related discussions are
found in !Max Weber's Religion of China (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1951), pp.
33-104.
Administrative Au hority in the Nation-State 1091
are at issue, that knowledge
and compromises by which
men of action thread their opposing principles. It is
necessary, therefore, to intrinsic in bench-
mark concepts like order to reduce the
hand, as we learn
avoidable and un-
of its own ends,
of law.
antibureaucratic counterpart.
H. Gerth and C. W. Mills, eds., Max Weber: Essays i~ Sociology
(New York: Oxford University pp. 196-198. The following
discussion is based on my book,
in Industry (New York:
John Wiley & Sons, 19561,pp. 244-248.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
110 Nation-Building and Citizenship
The endeavor to define rights and duties in accordance with formal
(impersonal) criteria will encounter persistent attempts to interpret
them in a manner the individual concerned regards as advantageous
to himself.
The systematic-ordering of authority relationships wiU be opposed,
though often quite unwittingly, by attempts to subject these relation-
ships to informal bargaining by using favors of various kinds.
Similar personal considerations may also affect the appointment and
promotion of employees, even when there is outward compliance
with the rules.
Technical training as a condition of employment is perhaps least
subject to such practices, though even here personal relationships and
subjective interpretations may m o m what otl~erwisewould be a
purely formal adherence to this condition. I think of such factors
as the preference of hiring officials for applicants who have certain
personal characteristics as well as the required technical competence.
Subjective evaluation also enters into the weighting of a candidate's
experience,professional standing, and so on.
Similar considerations apply to fixed monetary salaries. Althougl~
salary scales can be readily fixed and administered, appointment and
promotion are subject to bargaining and personal influence, as is the
whole system of job classification without which a salary scale is
meaningless. In addition, there are continual efforts at supplementing
any given salary scale by various fringe benefits which are not as
readily systematized as the scale itself, and hence permit the ma-
neuvering which the scale seeks to eliminate.
The strict separation between official and incumbent, between the
position and the employee, is an ideal condition which is rarely
achieved in practice, especially with regard to salaried employees
and skilled workers. Incumbents endow their work performance
with personal qualities that range from dispensable idiosyncrasies to
untransferable and often indispensable skills, so that some measure of
identification of the employee with his position is unavoidable. Un-
der modern conditions of employment the individual cannot appro-
priate his position in the sense in which, say, in the British government
during the eighteenth century administrative offices were a form of
private property a family could pass on from one generation to the
next. But the safeguards against dismissal established in modern gov-
ernment under the slogan of "job security" have endowed employ-
ment with a quasi-proprietary character which is more or less incom-
patible with the strict separation between the job and the employee.
avocational work.
cupation continues
ment, which
equity.
Accordingly, as Weber shows in his sociology of law, advance in
"formal rationality" has been and to be circumscribed at
many points by the concern of and indeed the rule-
351.
'3See this conditional formulation n~zdSociety, p.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
112 Nation-Building and Citizenship
makers themselves, with principles of equity. A belief in legality
means first and foremost that certain formal procedures must be
obeyed if the enactment or execution of a law is to be considered
legal. But while legal rule-maldng tends to eliminate the idiosyn-
crasies of personal rule in the interest of developing a consistent
body of rules that is the same for everyone, it also militates against
the exercise of judgment in the individual case. Yet attention to
rules for these reasons may engender an interest in rule-making for
its own sake-just as too much regard for equity in the individual
case can jeopardize the integrity of the rule-malcing process. Hence,
the rule of law endures as long as piecemeal solutions for these con-
flicting imperatives are found and neither the concern with equity
nor with the formal attributes of rule-making is allowed to predorni-
nate. The basic and anguishing dilemma of form and substance in
law can be alleviated, but never resolved, for the structure of legal
domination retains its distinguishing features only as long as this di-
lemma is perpetuated.
The conflicting imperatives of "formal and substantive rationality"
extend even into the relatively simple rules governing public admin-
istration, for it appears that the implementation of such rules is beset
by certain incompatibilities inherent in the structure of hierarchical
organizations. The problem of communication is a case in point. The
hierarchy of ranks indispensable in large organizations involves a
formally unambiguous order of authority. All subordinates receive
their orders from superiors, who by definition know more about the
policy of the organization and its "proper" execution than those
whom they command. Yet their superior knowledge is limited or
circumscribed by the fact that their high rank within the organization
removes them automatically from day-to-day experience with its op-
erational problems. In the parlance of organization theory, this is
called the problem of two-way communication. But, as Florence has
pointed out, the information which should come up the line of author-
ity from those who are in daily touch with operational problems "tends
to be neglected for the very reason that it comes from a subordinate."
It should be emphasized that the reason for such neglect is not neces-
sarily the ill-will of superiors or the ineptitude of subordinates. It is
rather that the hierarchy of ranks involves different levels of infor-
mation so that subordinates are not in a good position to judge what
aspects of day-to-day operation are of special interest to their supe-
7 P. Sargant Florence, T h e Logic of British and American Industry (London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1953), p. 153.
Administrative Au ority in the Nation-State 113JI
riors. Nor is it possible for superiorr/ to spell this out in too much
detail, for this would interfere with the very delegation of responsi-
bility which large-scale necessary. Hence, sub-
ordinates are left to their superiors want
is evalu-
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
114 Nation-Building and Citizenship thority in the Nation-State 115
bureaucratic As the ruler's domain becomes more extensive, become the and auencecontinue
the of household officials grows, as does the daculty of to this extent
maintaining them in the household. Accordingly, benefices and hence
relative &dependence from the household increasingly tale th and hence
of the earlier arrangement. The ruler's officials will seek to
their benefices hereditary, while the ruler will attempt to re
the benefice as ]lis own upon termination of service or the d
the incumbent. This wiU be fought Out in terms of the
personal arbitrariness and respect for tradition which are the charac-
teristics of patrimonial rule. When the officials succeed in m a h g
themselves independent, they have taken the first step away
- - -
from the complete identification of ruler and government. Note,-h~w-
ever that t l ~fir2 step-consists in the complete iden&cation of---9 --
government with many rulers; hence it remains well within the f=e-
work of pahonialgovernnlent. In Western Europe this framework
prevailed for many centuries, but it was gradually undermined from
within, as the performance of governmental functions declined in
effectivenesswith the commercialization of offices.
Eventually, the idea of government office as a type of personal and
inheritable property was superseded by the complete separation be-
tween and incumbent with renumeration now taking the form
of regular salary payments in lieu of the earlier dependence of the
incumbent on the ruler's household and on income from the perfom-
ante of official functions. It is true that this new principle, like the
earlier one, is subject to considerable variations. Although salary
scales are fixed and officialspossess no proprietary rights in their posi-
tions, these conditions of administrative service are subjected to bar-
gainingand personal a u e n c e . Such factors as fringe benefits and
personal indispensability can modify the salary scale and the separa-
tion of office and incumbent, often to a considerable extent. The
balance will depend on the conflicting efforts of those who
administer the salary scale and supervise the conditions of employ-
merit, as against those who use bargaining and influence to maximize
their advantages. If the former were completely successful, they
would codify fringe benefits and employment conditions SO minutely
as to minimize bargaining and personal influence. If the bargainers
were completely successful, they would undo the formal conditions
of modern administration and re-establish personal decision-making
on questions of remuneration and employment. The extent to which
this patrimonial alternative has become impossible is a true measure
of the degree to which the bureaucratic type of administration has 1128-1129 and passim.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
116 Nation-Building and Citizenship
reditary estates exist no longer. The safeguards against oucdght ap-
propriation and direct involvement with family and property inter-
ests are supplemented by the several conditions of public employ-
ment in which Weber sees the distinguishing characteristics of a mod-
ern bureaucracy. Taken together, these conditions are to ensure that
no extraorganizational influences will interfere with the implementa-
tion of commands as this passes down the hierarchy from the decision-
making level at the top to the executive official "on the firing line."
In this way the exercise of administrative functions is to be insulated
effectively from the surrounding social structure. Ideal-typically,
the bureaucratic hierarchy is a structure of its own: basic policy de-
cisions are arrived at prior to and clearly distinguished from their
administrativeimplementation; officials are so conditioned as to confine
themselves willingly and with technical competence to that imple-
mentation; and the public complies with the resulting rules and does
not attempt to influence their formulation or execution. Yet these
assumptions can only be appr~ximated.~~Several conditions impinge
on the hierarchy as a whole: the structure of supreme authority
(which, as Weber saw, is frequently not monocratic), the bureau-
cratic culture pattern which forms the prevailing outlook of public
officials, and the contacts between administrators and the public.ll
Accordingly, the a s s z ~ ~ t i o n sof Weber's model (rather than the
attributes which make up the model) will be modified in the follow-
ing discussion in order to approach a fuller understanding of admin-
istrative authority in the modern nation-state. The discussion will
focus on two critical issues: the legal and political position of civil
servants, and certain typical problems in the relation between admin-
istrators and the public.
Autho~ityand the Bz~relm~craticCultz~rePattern
The emergence of the nation-state is accompanied by the growth of
a large-scale governmental structure, staffed by officials who, on enter-
ing public employment must accept the conditions of employment laid- -
1 0 Weber himself offers a behavioral analysis in his political writings, especially
in his analysis of the bureaucratic problem in Imperial Germany under Bismarck.
See his Gesanmelte Politiscbe Schriftm (Tiibingen: J. C. B. Molu (Pad Sie-
beck), 1958), pp. 299ff. W e do not know how he would have developed the
relation between the ideal-typical and the behavioral level of analysis, had he
lived to complete his sociology of the state.
11My first attempt to formulate structural preconditions of bureaucratic behav-
ior is contained in Reinhard Bendix, Higher Civil Servants in Avnerican Society
(Universim of Colorado Series, Stzldies in Sociology, No. 1; Boulder: University
df colorado Press, 19491,Chap. I.
! Administrative ~ u / h o r i t yin the Nation-State 117
down by public authority. In the of hereditary privileges
and with the decline of extended
accept these conditions readily
of citizenship, traced in the
Should public employees be
private citizen, or should
them in view of their
Typically, three
extreme is the
a brief survey exemplifying
under the Third Republic, Nazi
see Thomas I. Emerson and David ''Loyalty among Govern-
mployees," Yale Law Journal, Vol.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
118 Na~on-Buildingand Citizenship
proach just mentioned. Its purpose is to show the impact of the
authority structure and the bureaucratic culture pattern on. the effort
to definethe legal and political position of public officialsin the United
States and in Germany.ls
In the American setting suspicion toward public officials goes back
to the beginning of independence. Among the complaints of the
colonies against the "repeated injuries and usurpations" of the king of
Great Britain is the declaration that "He has erected a multitude of
new offices,and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and
eat out their substance." l4 The Virginia Bill of Rights of 1776, as
well as the corresponding declaration of rights for Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania, and other states, put the top officials of the executive
branch of government on the same footing as the legislative with
reference to the principle of rotation. Appointed as well as elected
officials should be returned to private life at fixed intervals, both as a
safeguard against the abuse of power and as a means whereby they
can participate once again in the cares and deprivations of the people.
Thus, government administration should reflect the will of the people
directly, and government officials are literally servants of the public.
On the basis of his observations in 1831, Tocqueville noted that in
the United States government is considered a necessary evil, any
"ostensible semblance of authority" needlessly offensive, and that
"public officers themselves are well aware that the superiority over
their fellow citizens which they derive from their authority, they
enjoy only on condition of putting themselves on a level with the
whole community by their manners." l6 When men in public office
are not at all distinguished from the general population, rotation in
office is seen as a guarantee that no invidious distinctions can be
introduced in the future, while men from all ranks of the population
are considered equally qualified to hold public office.16 This anti-
18 The following discussion is greatly indebted to Ernst Fraenkel, "Freiheit und
Politisches Betatiitigungsrecht der Beamten in Deutschland und den USA," in
Veritas, Iustitia, Libertas (Festschrift in Honor of the Bi-Centenary of Columbia
University transmitted by the Freie Universitat Berlin and the Hochschule fiir
Politik; Berlin: Colloquium Verlag, 19531, pp. 60-90.
14Quoted in Carl L. Becker, T h e Declaration of Independence (New York:
VintageBooks, 19581, p. 12.
1 6 Alexis de Tocqueville, Denzocracy in Anzerica (New York: Vintage Books,
19541, I,pp. 214415.
16 See James Bryce, T h e American Commonwealtl~(Chicago: Charles H. Serge1
& Co., 1891), 11, pp. 127-128. The importance of these views is not diminished by
the &ding that the spoils system was not as extensive under Andrew Jackson
as had been supposed. See S. M. Lipset, The First N e w Nation (New York:
Basic Books,Inc., 1963), pp. 101-102.
Administrative Authority in the Nation-State 119
I
pervasive atti-
tude. In the case of Butler v. P
tiffs argued that their in the State govern-
ment was based on 1, Sect. 10 of the
Constitution,
appointment to, and created for the public use, . . .
do not come within contracts, or, in other words,
the vested, private personal to be protected. They
[appointment to, and
to that class of powers
and are called upon,
therefore which
A century later, in Bailey v. Ricba dson (182 f. 2d., 195I), the Court
upheld the right of the governme to dismiss an employee of whose
loyalty it was not completely con inced. In the opinion supporting
this judgment the Court also cornm nted on the nature and legal status
of public employment:
iThe due process ply to the holding of a Government
office. . .. Government is subject to many restrictions upon
otherwise unrestricted
ownership, etc. . . . So in the
tutional right to her office, and
her, the fact that she was of dismissal neither in-
validates her dismissal nor . . . These harsh
rules which run counter to to the private
individual have always
public interest, and the
Thus, since positions in the civil service do not depend upon the
rights of contract protected the Constitution, termination of
public employment does not e the incumbent of any rights in
view of the overriding the public business.17
Such separate and discrirninato ' treatment of public officials was
not applied in the political sphere> least at the beginning. Article 1,
Section 6 of the Constitution deches that no person be allowed to
17 See Fraenkel, op. cit, pp. 84-85. See also my discussion of American civil
servants as an "underpr~vllegedgroup" in Higher Civil Servants ilz Aazerican
Society, pp. 100 ff.
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Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
122 Na.gon-Building and Citizenship in the Nation-State 123
7rzenschem. In the execution of' ;heir ordei-s, the :commissars were a been significant officials voiced their
act Like officers in their own right .and accustomed to
the lower orders to their wU.'~
And in the
Until the death of Frederick I1 (1786) these autocratic officia
lutist state.at the same time "royal servants" in the literal sense. But un
influence of the Enlightenment and with the weakening of autocratic
rule these educated men became increasingly restive in their sub-
servient position. The subsequent decline of Prussia and her defeat
at the hands of Napoleon in 1806 provided them with opportunities
for administrative and social reforms. Thus, the idea of enlightened,
technically competent rule by highly laced governmental officials
was associated in Prussia with the endeavor to curb the arbitrary rule
of a royal autocrat and with the promotion of reforms in opposition
to the establishedprivileges of the nobility.22
This is the setting in which early German liberalism supported the
idea that civil servants must be protected against arbitrary disciplinary
measures and unjustified dismissals. In the first half of the nineteenth
c e n w , liberal spokesmen advocated the constitutional ~rotectionof
the rights of civil servants in order to offset the earlier subservience of
officialsto the monarch. Once officials enjoy the legal ~rotectionof
their position, they are able to protect the public against arbitrary
edicts of the monarch or unlawful actions of privileged groups. Ac-
cordingly, in contrast to the American constitution, the early German
constitutions contained provisions guaranteeing the legal regulation of
public employment. A civil servant can be dismissed from his position,
or his salary can be reduced, only on the basis of a proper adjudication
of his case. The same liberal orientation also gave rise to the view
that civil servants should be permitted to serve as members of ~arlia-
ment. This view found support in the experience of South-German
legislative assemblies (Landtage) before 1848. Delegates whose civil-
service position was secure on the basis of constitutional guarantees,
proved themselves independent of the ruling government and deter-
mined defenders of the constituti~n.~~Even in Prussia there had
21 Hans Rosenberg, Bureaucracy, Aristocracy and Az~tocracy (Cambridge:
Hmard UniversityPress, 19581, p. 142.
22This brief resume is based on Otto Hintze, Geist ulzd Epocben der preussi-
schen Geschichte (Leipzig: Koehler & Arnelang, 1943), especially pp. 25-33,
537ff., 566ff.
; ZsFraenkel, op. cit., pp. 87-89. Taking together all delegates who are con-
sidered public officials in Germany, a survey shows that from one-fifth to more
' than one-half of the representatives in successive legislative assemblies have been
L
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124 Nation-Building and Citizenship
the nineteenth century German governments would employ public
officialsin electoral campaigns as well as call upon them for an active
defense of policies in parliament and elsewhere. Before 1914 these
attempts were by no means always successful, since higher civil serv-
ants-among them those designated as "political officialsn--often
defended the rule of law against what they considered political expe-
diency. In retrospect we can see that such independence was facili-
tated by the conservative outlook of the officials; their quarrels with a
conservative government were conflicts among like-minded men,
rather than between opposed, ideological camps. After 1918 the situa-
tion changed when ministers of the Weimar Republic found themselves
confronted by staunchly conservative public officials who opposed a
constitutional regime. Accordingly, the device of "temporary retire-
ment" was used to replace recalcitrant officials by others more accept-
able to the party in power, thus undermining the independence of the
civil service and furthering its partisanship rather than its neutrality.
After 1933 political endorsement of the regime was made a positive
requirement of public empl~yment.~~These vicissitudes have not
affected the prevailing outlook, however.
T o this day public officials are allowed to double as legislators and
party spokesmen, although many arguments favoring a prohibition of
this practice have been brought forward in the course of the German
debates on this issue."8 However, the policy which allows officials
to serve in parliament remains associated not only with the belief in
political liberties for all citizens irrespective of their status, but more
specifically with the idea that the legally protected independence of
civil servants must not be impaired since it is a buttress of the rule of
law. Similarly, maintenance of the legal order remains identified with
a civil service, whose members are appointed for life, protected against
changes of positions which do not represent the exact career equiva-
lent of the previous office, protected against arbitrary dismissal or
removal from the service (except in cases of "temporary retirement"),
and entitled to an adequate subsistence for themselves and their
25Evidence for the political independence of civil servants prior to 1914 is
cited by Hartung, op. cit., who seems however to underestimate (on pp. 273-
275) the degree to which high public officials were obliged to "toe the line"
politically during the Weimar Republic. For a s w e y of this latter problem
see Theodor Eschenburg, Der Bea~nte in Partei z~nd Parlm7zent (Frankfurt:
Alfred Metzner Verlag, 1952), Chaps. 2-3.
26 See Werner Weber, "Parlamentarische Unvereinbarkeiten," Arcbiv des offent-
lichen Rechts, Vol. 58 (1930), pp. 208ff. for a comprehensive comparative
analysis of the arguments advanced and the relevant legislation.
Administrative A thority in the Nation-State 125
1families.27 In the American setting conditions have hardly even
been approximated, and further the status of the American
civil servant has not brought like the prestige,
tant safeguards of the rule of law.29
27 See Klaus Kroeger, "'Parteipolitische einungsksserungen' der Beamten,"
Archiv des offentlichen Rechts, Vol. 88 19631, p. 134 for the relevant
legal citations. This article contab on p. 121-147 a full, if turgid, restate-
ment of the views characterized above. here are indications that this view
is shared widely by the German public. See Brian Chapman, The Profession
vol. 77 (1951/52), p. 108.
Fof Govern7nent (London: George
"Ernst Kern, '73erufsbeamtentum und Archiv des offentlicken Rechts,
20 I follow here the argument advanced pp. 109-110. The same volume
of the Arcbiv contains a rebuttal by (on pp. 564366) in which
the author argues against the special civil servants as no longer
justified today, but no reference is problem of political
activitiesby civil servants.
Určeno pouze pro studijní účely
126 Nation-Building and Citizenship
This conventional defense of the German civil service has been
challenged by those who favor that special restrictions be placed on
the political activities of public offi~ials.~~When civil servants serve
as parliamentary delegates, they help enact and supervise the execu-
tion of laws, thus leading to a bureaucratization of parliament. It is
just as much of an abuse if political parties put their top functionaries
in civil-service positions. Both the legislative and the executive
branch of government are harmed if either is made into a mere exten-
sion of the other. One writer states that political neutralization of the
civil service can only enhance the integrity of the state. But in thus
favoring the clear separation between politics and administration, he
also adds a consideration which reveals the basic difference between
the German and the American institutional structure. Political neu-
tralization will
presumably strengthen the inner homogeneity of the [German] civil
service. But then the question arises whether this is really in accord with
the intentions of the [American] military government. For they are con-
cerned in the first place to eliminate the "caste-like segregation" of the
privileged civil service (Beamtenstand). The political neutralization of the
officialdom could prove to be a genuine privilege, however, even though
the denial of elective office to the civil servant constitutes a diminution
of his rights as a citizen. For this neutralization also precludes the possi-
bility that the officialdom is pervaded by forces outside its own province
("berufsfremde" Kri3fte).a1
When a traditional position of special privilege exists, political neutral-
ization may only intensify the social and psychological distance be-
tween officials and the public which the reforms are supposed to re-
duce. This is in contrast with the American case, where similar
measures reinforce the "second-class citizenship" of public officials.
The German context thus tends to transform the meaning of political
neutrality, as Ernst Fraenkel points o~t.~"or the prohibition to
engage in partisan activities may mean in effect that the German
SQAsurvey of opinions and of several proposals for remedial legislation are
contained in Eschenburg, op. cit., pp. 59-77. The author examines the implica-
tions of political activities by civil servants with numerous examples from the
German contextin Chapter 4 of this work.
*lUBeamteals Abgeordnete," ArcBiv des 6ffentlicbenRecbts, Vol. 75 (1949), pp.
108-109. There are other opinions, of course. See, for example, Eschenburg,
op. cit., p. 67 where neutralization is considered a potential danger, because
in the absence of polidcal participation civil servants would be politically
ignorant or uncertain and might again fall victim to "wrong tendencies."
32 SeeFraenltel, op. cit., p. 80.
Administrative Authority in the Nation-State 127
civil servant is enjoined to display ~ointedemphasis on the neutrality
of his position and the special ob arising from its legal privi-
leges. Accordingly, public claim a special trust and
authority as functionaries of their eyes the prohibition
of partisan activities can be authoritative depreciation
of politics as such and of executive immunity
from the partisanship.
public officials is,
service, recalling
servants of the
a3A fuller analysis of bureaucracy fro a similar perspective is contained in
Michel Crozier's The Burenucran'c (Chicago: University of Chi-
cago Press, 1964).
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