The Science of History and the Hope of Mankind/Chapter 6
SECTION VI
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND THE FORMS OF GOVERNMENTAL MACHINERY
WE shall see that not only states, but administrative systems and forms and methods of government also are influenced and modified by the surrounding conditions of the world. As the State has its origin in the furtherance of the interests of a people, it grows and develops through the action and inter-action of the diverse antagonistic and parallel forces of social life; and consequently it has to adapt its organisation and governmental machinery to the varying circumstances of the environment.
The insular position and natural boundaries of Great Britain and the United States of America preserve them from foreign aggressions, and this explains why the principle of protection of the people from the Government operates in these countries more powerfully than that of protection by the Government. And the centralised despotism of Louis XIV., which has been formulated into the memorable dictum, "I am the state," is due to quite contrary physical and social conditions of France in the seventeenth century, viz., the danger of the safety of the state owing to weak barriers. The strong military rule and Cæsarism of the founders of the Prussian monarchy was an absolute necessity when the small nucleus of political life was surrounded by enemies on all sides.
Religious intolerance and persecution in European history and the enforcement of a rigid system of uniformity in religious theory and practice were inevitable when the peoples of Europe were emerging from the conditions of feudalistic disintegration to the new national and unified socio-political existence. A strong monarchy exercising sway over all the spheres of human life was the only means of removing the decentralisation due to diversity and multiplicity of independent states, cities, and principalities. This need of national unity and homogeneous compacture is responsible for the suppression of independence in thought, speech, and action, and accounts for the remarkable preponderance of the states in Spain, France, England, and in more recent times in Prussia and Russia.
But freedom of thought and action, and toleration of diversities and disunions were encouraged in India, and the almost absolute independence and autonomy of the ancient village republics were preserved here up to the modern age, owing to the vastness and physical immensity of this "epitome of the world," which presented unsurmountable obstacles to the employment of the principles of Imperialism and consolidation, and necessarily gave ample scope for the application of laissez-faire and let-alone in religion, society, politics, and industry.
Besides the external conditions, internal circumstances also regulate the form and spirit of the administrative machinery of a state. Lycurgus' military-pedagogic state was the direct and conscious result of the existence of innumerable Helots and other original settlers who were enslaved by the Dorians in the land of their adoption. The unruly and fanatical character of subjects has to be met by a tyrannical and inquisitorial form of government. "Kings have to be tyrants from policy when the subjects are rebels from principle." The existence of diversities in religion, tribe, and language also necessitates the adoption by rulers of a policy of absolutism in the interests of peace and security of the whole territory under their sway.
The "rights of man" and the principles of liberty, fraternity, and equality created opportunities for the rise of Napoleon; but he began his career by restoring the ancien régime which it had been the first work of the Revolutionists to overthrow. Napoleonism becomes a political necessity when revolutions and disorders are imminent; and not sympathy of the people but their terror is the object aimed at by the rulers. So also "Special Tribunals" and "Councils of Disorder," martial laws, and a thousand other engines of repression have always to be resorted to by successful revolutionists in order to crush the old order of sovereigns. The history of the French Revolution is a record of coercions and counter-coercions, by the successively rising governments, of the parties just overthrown. Even religious orders, societies for the promotion of economic good, and philanthropic organisations have to adopt a powerful repressive policy in order to concentrate their own strength and assert their own position in the society against the despotism of established customs and vested interests. Enforcement of strict discipline and principles of military organisation is the sole means of binding together the members of a new organisation for the furtherance of national interests. The rigorous pedagogic morality among the Calvinists and the repression of all individuality among the Jesuitical orders were the inevitable consequences of their position and responsibility as the pioneers and organisers of new movements.