Political Knowledge Sphere
The political knowledge sphere deals with the study, structure, or affairs of government, politics, or the state. Focus is on citizenship, governance, foreign policy, political and cultural choices, and national defense. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), a product of the Enlightenment period, is the author of The Social Contract (or Principles of the Political Right). One of his most notable quotes is: "Man was born free, and is everywhere in chains."
Rousseau describes the necessity of a social pact among men: "I assume that men reach a point where the obstacles to their preservation in a state of nature proved greater than the strength that each man has to preserve himself in that state. Beyond this point, the primitive condition cannot endure, for then the human race will perish if it does not change its mode of existence…How to find a form of association which will defend the person and goods of each member with the collective force of all, and under which each individual, while uniting himself with the others, obeys no one but himself, and remains as free as before. This is the fundamental problem to which the social contract holds the solution."
Rousseau is particularly eloquent on the topics of (1) democracy, and (2) the body politic. He is quoted as follows:
1. "Nothing is more dangerous in public affairs than the influence of private interests, and the abuse of the law by the government is a lesser evil than the corruption of the legislator which inevitably results from the pursuit of private interests. When this happens, the state is corrupted in its very substance and no reform is possible." Rousseau also adds this caution: "…there is no government so liable to civil war and internecine strife as is democracy or popular government, for there is none which so powerful and constant a tendency to change to another form or which demands so much vigilance and courage to maintain it unchanged."
2. "The constitution of a man is a work of nature; that of the state is the work of artifice. It is not within the capacity of men to prolong their own lives, but it is within the capacity of men to prolong the life of the state as far as possible by giving it the best constitution it can have." He continues to say that: "The principle of political life dwells in the sovereign authority. The legislative power is the heart of the state, the executive power is the brain, which sets all the parts in motion. The brain may become paralyzed and the individual still live. A man can be an imbecile and survive, but as soon as his heart stops functioning, the creature is dead."
[Editor’s Note: Rousseau’s "social contract" accentuates Learnership™ 2009 chapter nine’s emphasis on communities of organizational entities (education, business, government) collaboratively working to achieve the common good. In this chapter which is focused on the state or national society, we begin to understand the difficulty in holding together the democratic body politic. On the one hand, citizens will always attempt to influence and modify the principles and laws upon which the democratic state operates to suit their evolving needs and interests. On the other hand, stability and predictability are the cornerstones of a solid foundation necessary for forging foreign policy and building international relationships. The learnership contribution in these matters is the introduction of the meta-systems LISA model which illustrates the mutual dependencies among personal, organizational, community, and societal levels of social development and achievement. Optimization of these four integrated domains of experience requires balancing their individual influences on each other as well as balancing the total effect of their combination on international entities and societies. The learnership philosophy and architecture propose a universal commitment to human learning and leading, which by design employs the balanced inquiry and advocacy principle so common in effective social dialogue].