The problem of “government” in the social thought of Immanuel Kant: Or the acquisition and praxis of patriotic “way of thinking”

Abstract

  The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation of the judging public to the despotic government, which is to be reformed, in Kantian social thought. Instead of revolution, which he rejects as a way of changing a constitution, Kant proposes gradual reform of the despotic government with a view to establishing a republic, where freedom and equality under the law are guaranteed. This process of gradual reform is known as Kantian “republicanism”.

  The concept of gradual reform has several aspects. First, the reform of the government of the monarch is required to separate legislative and executive power and establish a division of powers. Kant considered the monarchical government of his age especially problematic, because it could easily become despotic and paternalistic. Second, the reform of hereditary nobility as a class in political society is to be pursued so as to achieve equality before the law. Third, the reforms of social institutions such as the knighthood and the church should be carried out when the public needs them.

  These aspects of gradual reform are interrelated and guided by the ideal of the original contract. In the Kantian concept of reform, the ideal of the original contract shows not only how the monarch should pursue the reforms, but also the principles of legislation, according to which only the general will of the people can legitimately make law. The public should discuss and judge the laws and institutions in political society according to these principles and the monarch should respect the judgments of the public. At this point in his argument Kant resorts to a rhetorical strategy to guarantee the freedom of speech. Kant maintains that to deprive the people of this freedom would be to deprive a monarch of all knowledge of what he would himself reform if he only knew it, and it would then put him into contradiction with himself. A monarch should always be better informed by the judging public (a rege male informato ad regem melius informandum). It is in the praxis of judging the social institutions in the light of the original contract that the public develops its patriotic and republican way of thinking.