England as a Case Study in Planning and Freedom, 1945–1950

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ENGLAND AS A CASE STUDY IE PLANNING AND FREEDOM St 1946-60

by Chi-pel Peter Teeng

A dissertation submitted In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Department of Economic®* in the Graduate College of the State University of Iowa July, 1950

ProQuest Number: 10907207

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The writer gratefully acknowledge© the friendly guidance* encouragement and constructive criticism of Dr. 0. Addison Hickman

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TABLE OF c o m m a s

Introduction Chapter I

The Meaning of Freedom « » « « # « • • • • • !

Chapter II

Criteria of Planning « • » * * * * » » * *

32

Chapter III How Free has England been*? » * « • » « « *

65

Chapter IV

England as a Planned Economy * « » • * « «

108

Chapter V

Planning and Political Freedom in England*

153

Chapter VI

Planning and Cultural Freedom in England » 189

Chapter VII Planning ana Economic Freedom in England « 222 Bibliography

259

ill

TABLE OF TABLES

I

The London or national Press • * * * . * . * * » . 64

iv

Introduction this thesis, a® the title indicates, is a study of one aspect of the changes that have taken place in England during the first five years of Labour rule between 1945 and I960,

The purpose of this ease-study is to explore

the feasibility of preserving individual freedom under a system of government-planned economy* The compatibility of freedom and planning has been one of the three major controversial Issues over the theory of economic planning.

The other two are the theoretical

consistency and the practical feasibility of the planned economy, which will not be dealt with in this thesis.

As

a oase-stu&y, no attempt has been mad© to Judge whether freedom Is desirable or not. The reasons to choose England for the study are four. These four reasons together make England the fairest trial for the compatibility of freedom and planning.

The first

two reasons provide for an ideal environment for freedom and order, and the last two furnish favorable conditions for the success of a planned economy,

bith these four,

there may be great possibility of preserving freedom in planning, but what is done here is not neoessarily attainable elsewhere.

However, to take England as a case to test the

possibility is only the fairest choice.

Among the four reasons, the first 1® that England In the last few centuries has been a country where the concept of freedom and political democracy was nurtured and put into practice.

England*s Parliament has been known as the

mother of parliaments throughout the world*

People in

England are used to the kind of freedom they have attained* Although the Magna Carta was the victory of the barons, the victories in 1840, 1867 and 1918 definitely belong to the people at large*

What they have achieved is something that

people would want to keep, or else they would not have to fight for It*

The Englishman has had a freedom that Is

still lacking in many other countries.

It would not be

too much a surprise for an Englishman to protest when his freedom Is taken away in order to achieve Government plan­ ning.

To the average Ivan in Moscow, It may be a difficult

thing to decide whether communist dictatorship ie more, or lees, intolerable than ezarlst tyranny*

For this reason,

England is taken as a comparatively more sensitive barometer of freedom consciousness than any other country that has tried planning. Secondly, the Britishers are a law-abiding people. This seems to contradict with their freedom loving nature, but a closer examination would show that It is logically consistent.

In order to preserve one*e own freedom, one €i

must reepeet freedom of other people*

Buies of conduct are

established to give ^John Bull11 guidance, so that by follow­ ing the rulee he would not be caught stepping on other people1® toes*

On the other hand, there is more assurance

that his own toes would not be stepped upon*

Thus this law-

abiding spirit, sportsmanship and fair-play is actually a pragmatic way of protecting 000*8 own Interest. It is not Just the individual who refrain© from break­ ing the law*

The whole of society is one vast law-enforce­

ment agency and public opinion is fiercely hostile to law­ breakers and rule-bre&kers*

Bo Englishmen cheat on their

railway tickets, yet where in America a single functionary looks at a ticket, in England there are no less than three who perform this unnecessary service*

This law-abiding

habit of the British people as a whole would help to remove to a great extent the uncertainties in the study of group behavior and serves therefore as another reason to select England as the object of study. In the third place, England in the past had been an industrially well-organized country, unchallenged in strength and wealth.

The discovery of the Americas made England

geographically the center of the world, linking the old continent of Europe with the newly discovered western hemisphere.

The Industrial revolution drastically changed vii

her made of production.

lew inventions not only provided

cheaper goods in large quantities and great varieties, but also created new demands and employments.

Markets developed

in all corners of the world, bringing great wealth to England, which was then called the workshop of the world*

Together

with this growth In wealth and business came the development In business organizations and exchange mechanism*

Corpora­

tions and chartered companies began to replace partnerships In larger ventures with the collective strength of in­ numerable small sums of money*

Banking and stock exchange

alec developed into their modern forms, not only to channel idle capital through the creation of bank credits. London became the nerve center of the business world and Lombard Street was the place where all borrowers, domes­ tic and foreign, came to negotiate loans for various purposes. The adequacy of ICngland1® Industrial, commercial and finan­ cial establishment, even though comparatively out-of-date in term of American technological standard, Is a great asset for any government in planning an economy* In the fourth place, government planning would not be of any value if the plan stops at a blueprint stage and goes no further*

It must be carried out accordingly and

enforced through authority entrusted to government agencies. viil

If the system of public service le incompetent, inefficient, or corrupted, many mistakes would be made and abuses of povir and injustices would be Imposed upon the people.

The

blame, before it is examined and duly placed, would pro* bably fall upon planning as such and the issue would be difficult to clarify* England*e Civil Service has long enjoyed its fame of being honest, competent end efficient.

Its method of re­

cruitment through open, competitive written examination, its system of promotion by merit and seniority guaranteed security of tenure may not be ideal.

and its Yet,

nevertheless, it compares very favorably with civil services based on the spoil system and influenced by any political changes.

For this reason, choosing England as the object

farther eliminates variables otherwise involved in the study. Five years, as a tiny drop In the long stream of human history, may be too short a period for an adequate study of such a controversial issue as planning and freedom.

However,

changes In history do not take place in the same tempo as changes In seasons.

The changes that took place in France

between 1789 and 1799 undoubtedly surpassed those from 1760 to 1789.

For the same reason, the coverage of the five

years after 1948 of changes In England may be justified, in

IX'

spite of the length of the period.

Furthermore, in the

course o f time! continued studies may he made in the future by people who are interested In the issue. One of the difficulties In the sgudy of social sciences lies In the lack of uniformity In interpreting concepts and ideas.

What appears to be one thing to one school may be an

entirely different thing to another.

It is therefore deemed

desirable in this case to lay down an articulate set of definitions before the study is undertaken.

For this purpose,

the first two chapters of the thesis are devoted to state, from our point of view, the meaning of freedom and the criteria of planning,

With these two sets of yardsticks,

we measure, In chapters three and four, the degree of freedom prevailing in England before 194$ (or actually before 1939 since controls were Installed a© wartime mea­ sures), and the degree of planning prevailing in England after 1946. With these steps completed In establishing England as a case-study, we proceed to examine, with the defined mean** ings of freedom, England*© political freedom under planning in chapter five, and her

cultural and economic freedoms in

chapters six and seven. Because of the fact that the whole study is conducted outside the United Kingdom, judgement Is rokde entirely X

through lndlreet observation.

Sources of information upon

which the study is based come mainly from publications of and releasee by the British Labour Government on the one hand and notes and criticisms upon the Labour Government's activities by The Economist of London on the other.

Oc­

casionally, supplementary materials are added from books and artieles written either by English or by American writers to increase the variety of view points. Because of the teleseopie and fragmentary nature of the sources of information, the Judgement resulting in spite of a sincere attempt on the part of the writer to remain Impartial

may turn out to be wrong.

The only Justi­

fication for assuming its correctness lies in the general eohslsteney, after careful checking, among various sources of information.

X

Chapter I THE MEANING- OF FREEDOM The Importance of a common yardstick In human activi­ ties la an accepted truism In any human society.

Th© con­

cepts of good or bad, of large or small, of dear or cheap, of beautiful or ugly and of many other value Judgements ar© only matters of relativity*

However, without an accepted

yardstick to provide common measurements, not even relative comparisons would be feasible.

Examining whether planning

is compatible with freedom In England would be Impossible if the meaning of freedom is not clearly defined. Freedom Pef ined What is freedom? What is freedom that men, past and present, cherish so much; that endless discussion®, debates and arguments have centered upon; for which hundreds and thousands have sacrificed their money and property, their dear ones and even their own lives; for which hundreds and thousands left the land they were brought up In and sailed Into the un­ certain high seas? By referring to a dictionary, we find that the meaning of freedom 1© given a© liberty. out;

As Montesquieu once pointed

^Ther© is no word that admits more varied Impressions

2

on the human mind, than that of Liberty•11

The meaning of

ft%ed©ir has been explained in many different ways by many different people; some purposely twisting it round to achieve certain designs and others innocently but sincerely sticking to the wtrhc concept1* of freedom because it was taught by seme one they respect and trust and Is therefore *infallible.** kn extreme case is given by one writer:

irTh©ugh in Jail, Henry D. Thoreau had scope to think as he wanted.

He retained one type of liberty and called

himself frees *...if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to b@ as free as I was.

I did not for a moment feel confined, and the

walls seemed a great waste of stone and morter.••.they thought that my chief desire was to stand the other side of that stone wall.

1 could not but smile to see how in­

dustriously they locked the door on my meditations, which 2 followed them out again without let or hindrance. . Such a concept of freedom is certainly not very conventional but it i© an evidence ©f the herd© varied meaning.

Freedom,

therefore, Is in a way comparable to the name John, or Mary, which implies different personalities to people of different settings.

3

HfiWiVftXY Just a© "John1* ©r "Mary" can be generalised tad defined as the name adopted by or given to a certain human being, freedom can be defined as the absence of reetraint both on what a person doe® and on what the person ©ay incline to do*

In other word®, when a person decides to

do something, he should be allowed to do as he pleases* Civilisation versus Jungle Life Following this definition, the question of how much freedom we really have naturally present® itself*

As students,

we cannot go to attend an eight-thirty class at nine-thirty. As passengers, we cannot expect the conductor to stop the train so that we could get off In front of our farm house. As drivers, we are supposed t© drive on the right side of the highway, to observe the speed limit and not t© leave our ears In the no-parking son©.

Fire hazard precaution® for­

bids smoking in warehouses, Automobile garages and public libraries*

Public health regulations rule out the setting

up of certain kind of factories within the residence zone of a city*

Social conventions govern people*s dress and manner,

religious ceremonies and dogmas limit people's action In re­ gard to time and place. Confronted with such regulations, laws, rule®, and customs, a person who sticks to the above mentioned defInitlon

:I

.

4

©f freedom could hardly help being frustrated.

However,

in spite of the fact that people sang Hbongo bongoM and talked about going to the Jungle, the mass of the populace stays with civilisation and thinks that it is. free. What if a man really breaks with civilisation and moves to the Jungle?

True, fee no longer has to abide with all the

laws and customs of a human society* man.

Literally he is a free

Be can walk about without bothering himself with what

to put on.

He does not have to worry about being charged

with stealing when he picks fruits from the wildly grown trees, and when he feels like singing even at midnight, he does not have to be afraid of the neighbor©* protests. On the other hand, when he is

disturbed and is wakened

from his dreams by the howling of some night no one to whom to complain,

birds, he has

there Is no sign post to warn

him that he 1® walking in the lion* s playground.

When he is

in a mood to plunge into a creek for a mid-summer afternoon1 & dip, he can ask nobody whether there are any crocodiles.

It

would not take long for him to find out that life in the Jungle is Just as unpleasant as In civilization.

If a

savage la brought to any urban industrialized society, he will probably be equally unhappy.

He is simply not accustomed

to the ^civilized** way of living.What he wants either laughed upon or prohibited.

to do is

He might not be able to

proclaim in modern terminology that his freedom Is deprived, but, nevertheless, he feels frustrated all the same.

5

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2 £ JSSBS55S555S8? H a m m mSSSSSSSStSSSSSSmnature

rnmmm

Judging from evidences presented in historical documents, it seems fair to state that human activities ©enter around C• ' a process of readjustment towards the goal of self-satis­ faction in seeking the pleasure of satisfying one's own ego. Rousseau maintained that man is born free, and yet Is everywhere in chains.

The practice of absolute freedom by

Individuals within a given sphere or area, when practiced to a certain extent, would Inevitably result In the inconven­ ience of other individuals concerned and in most cases would develop into a state of open conflicts.

The logical con­

sequence, judging from the egoistic nature of human beings, would be an endless stream of jealousies, hostilities and violent struggles whereby the stronger party would always be in a position to demand and collect.

The weaker side

could have no alternative but to submit and accept whatever obligations Imposed upon by the other party.

The relation

between the strong and the weak would continue until one day when the weaker party, after due course of changes, becomes strong enough to reverse the situation. In spite of the fact that the clash of individual interests which results in hostilities and violence, man is, ms pointed out ms early as by Aristotle and restated by Rousseau, by nature not only a social, but a political

6

feeing.

Th# existence of common throats, such as the de­

structive fore® of nature, the havoc by wild beasts and the auspicious appearance of strange persons whose means of communications are far fro® understandable and therefore Chose intentions Inevitably arouse speculation, would natur­ ally create a common interest within a given group, even in the time of the stone ages. T© solve these common problems, not only cooperation femt also group organization become necessary.

Thu®, for

the well-being of the group the surrender of a certain amount ©f individual freedom would be called upon in order to set up rules of conduct acceptable by all member®, or at least by the majority, of the group. This *social contract, ** appearing in the for® of general agreement, might be the product of voluntary action of all individuals, or of **moral suasionw by means of the will of the deity, or of coercion by a man of power, or simply the result of compromise between several pressure blocs; all based on egoistic motives. If that is the whole truth, the lengthy discussions ©f freedom throughout history would have been futile.

Side

by side with man*s selfishness, however, exists his other qualities, the quality of love, of sympathy and of selfsacrifice.

Throughout history, accounts describing those

7

who gave up th»ir-fortwite, their safety or their lives in order to secure happiness for their families, their neighbors or their loved one© can to© found in every nation and in ©very age*

Charles Pickens' success in A Christmas Carol

is not due only to his vivid writing# tout also to his un­ covering of that something lying deep in th® human heart. As has been stated toy one author, f,lt is not merely the ties of a hard necessity which bind us to each other, tout the tie® of that love which is the greatest quality of human nature.” Love does not merely exist between those having kinship, acquaintance and common interests. people not knowing one another.

It also exist© between

Ko one would deny the

delightful feeling of watching a group of innocent children playing In a bright sunny morning in the spring.

$or could

one escape the feeling of sorrow in a mournful atmosphere, when someone is lying in the sickbed, waiting for the moment ©£ death's arrival.

When the great earthquake in Japan in

1921 destroyed a vast number of lives and drove a still greater number of others horn©less, rich and poor alike throughout the world contributed a share in the sympathy toward the Japanese misfortune. aid were rushed to her relief.

Large amounts of material

Freedom and 9Human Behavior SSSSeS&SS>Freedom is said to be the absence of restraint over human action and human action is described as any small drop in the endless stream of readjustments towards the goal of human desire. The observation of human behavior tends to lead to generalisations in two categories.

The first includes

all human activities Involving a reaction towards the forces of nature, such a® changes in climate, hurricanes, atoms, floods, havoc of wild animals, and damages caused by the outbursts of volcanoes and the like.

Under the

second heading are human activities reacting or responding to activities of other human beings, Human behavior In reaction toward natural forces may be classified into two sub-headings.

Under the first we

find human efforts in the attempts to harness nature for the satisfaction of desires or wants.

Human beings, after

a certain period of observation, discover that certain phenomena in the forces of nature are recurring in a certain manner that they can make use of. Predicting that seeds buried in the soil will grow In the spring, people sow the seeds of certain crops and expect a harvest after a certain period of time. the seeds yield a harvest, while others fail.

Some of

The kind

9

that yields is used and become© a $iajor crop among the people* while other seeds that fall are soon forgotten* Agriculture has thus developed*

Observing that some wild

animals-that have been caught breed among themselves* people build barns to keep them as domestic animals. husbandry has thus developed.

Animal

Water wheel® are built to

make use of the inexhaustible power of the running stream. Windmills stand by farm houses.

The discovery of the

mbnsoon wind by the Arabs was the chief factor In the de­ velopment ©f the silk trade between the last and the $e@t. Under the second sub-heading* we put all human activities involving the prevention, avoidance or running away from damages and destructions caused fey forces of nature.

Thus,

In order to avoid diseases caused fey severe cold weathers, man covers his body with clothing, builds himself a house and warms the house with a fir®.

Because there is no way

to pro tee t himself from the destruction caused by the out­ burst ©f the volcano, man move® himself and his family away from area© where damage could fee done*

To avoid the

havoc of wild beast®, he make© himself weapons such as spears, arrow© and axes.

He also moves his home to where

other human feeing© live so that they can cooperate in driving the wild beasts away. Long experience makes it instinctive for the fishermen to tie their boats in the harbor when they observe a certain

10

M u d of ©image In the sky which means to them the prelude «l .& tempest.

In a certain season of the year, inhabitants

along the Elver Mile will move their homes and belongings away from the river bank, because the river floods annually during that season* Human behavior in dealing with nature is largely limited to these two categories*

It is entirely on the basis of

Obtaining utility and avoiding disutility.

The forces of

nature aot the way they always have acted.

They can be

harnessed to do good for mankind only If human beings know how to put them under control.

On the other hand, they can

do tremendous harm when human beings run into their way. Mature runs its own course. to human beings.

It has no Intention to do good

Neither does It intend to harm.

What man

feels about the good or the h a m done, nature is Indifferent. Man ©an be unhappy about nature, and cries about It, but he ©an do nothing to change nature fun&ament&lly.

So In spite

of all the superstitions of the ancient tribes that sacrifices were frequently offered to bribe the gods to do mankind good, no record in history has ever been discovered concerning any revolution against the gods because of their indifference to man’s appeal* Thus it is obviously Irrelevant when the definition of freedom is applied to nature as a restraint over human action or human intention to act.

Bo long as human beings lack the

11

required knowledge to harness nature, nothing can he done about It, ***& Mutual Response among M.en What freedom means really lies In the realm of human activities which arise as a response to activities of other human beings,

Man, as a social and political being, cannot

avoid things that involve other people,

anything man does,

no matter how well he plans so as to confine the effects to himself, has an impact upon the Interest© of others, however slight the impact may be.

This is especially true

in the urban industrialised society. Whatever man does is bound to arouse the response of others, b© it approval or antagonism.

The response of the

second man or the third or the hundredth man might change the situation so much that it might defeat the first man* a purpose in his original action.

Anticipating the probability,

or certainty of arousing responses by whatever he plans to do, a man must therefor© male® necessary arrangements In beforehand to nullify the possible rise of negative response. These arrangements are generally carried out in the form of persuasion to bring about either concerted action or sympathy*

Force or duress is not infrequently used, but

its effectiveness is highly questionable. f&ta it,

As one author

human being can ever literally •force® another

12

16m do' anything (though one may of course forcibly prevent

4 another from acting)*1* Ho one would he happy If restrained from doing some­ thing one wants*

Even under duress, one would break away

from the restraint as soon as one feels strong enough to do so*

While the desire to be free from restraint on what

one does or what one want s to do Is universal in human nature, human wants are to a very large extent determined fey people's environments.

Wants not only differ from person

to person, from place to place, from society to society, but also, even in the case of a single person, from time to time* The owning of a fur coat may be a luxury and something to show off in Hew lork, but in th© Horth Pole, one could hardly do anything outdoors during many months of a year without a heavy fur coat*

In equatorial Singapore, & fur

eoat is acre of a liability than an asset, because not many persons there could appreciate its high monetary value and yet the amount of storage expense would be a considerable burden* Freedom lies in the presence of alternatives that a person is able to choose from*

However, alternatives are

provided fey one's environment* Buskin, In a lecture delivered at Woollsh, England, recalled an incident in his childhood;

*?One evening*.*

13

W&sm 1 was yet In my nurse*« a m s ,

tea-urn, which was holllng merrily. far bromses, X suppose:

It was an early taste

hut 1 was resolute about it.

©other hid me keep my fingers hack: the© forward.

X wanted to touch the

My

I insisted putting

My nurse would have taken me away from the

ara, hut my mother said — X touched it* ~

*JLet him touch it, nurse.*

so

and that was my first lesson in the meaning

of the word Liberty.

It was the first piece of liberty I 5 got* and the last which for some time I asked for.** Society changes its policy from time to time for the well being ©f its members*

For one time, one special way

of handling public affairs may be considered highly de­ sirable, and then one serious crisis might change the entire attitude of members of society. Sometimes a few outstanding members might be able to maintain the original policy by "convincing" the rest of the society of its superiority.

In the long run, however,

as soon as the majority discovers that the policy no longer serves their purpose, a restive mood will set in and In th© course ©f time will develop Into actual move for a change. Although the cor© meaning of freedom allows no ambi­ guous interpretation, the detailed contents of freedom, or freedoma as some authors prefer, are largely ethically conditioned.

The following discussion, dividing freedom

lb

tot® three sections, namely political, cultural, and economic, is extracte& fro® writings concerning freedom as viewed fro® our modern society* Political Freed cm fhe term political freedom probably reminds many persons of the ideas that a government is the best that governs the least and that government Is a necessary evil. If these were true, it follows logically that the abolition Of all forms of government should be the first requirement Of a free state, and there should be little wonder when one author stated:

**Anarchism, then really stands for the

liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of pro­ perty; liberation from the shackles and restraint of govern6 ment,** However, what makes government, an institution as old as human civilisation, necessary Insplte of being Meviltt? Furthermore, what is the reason that human beings should allow this ^eyil1* Institution to stay after Incessant trials of reforms, riots, revolutions and new Ideas such a© anarchism throughout the past thousands of years? fo answer these questions it would probably be advisable to find out what government generally does or what people generally expect a government to do, so that they would

15

tolerate tl%m trouble of maintaining a government • According to Abraham Lincoln, a# quoted In a recent book, th« "legitimate object of a government la to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, hut cannot do at all, or cannot do a© wall. In their 8asm rate 7 aad individual capacities,* &b@t are the things that people In a eoue-vmlty need to have done hut cannot do in their separate and individual capacities?

The oldest function of government prdhahly

arose out of the need to win an external war, wherein la* dividual® could do little without cooperation and coordinate actions. Internally, to maintain and strengthen the solidarity of the community, fights and hostilities due to conflict® among Individuals had to he stooped and tfma the function of maintenance of peace and order within the community was added. Gradually* the desirability of preventing the develop*' meat' of personal conflicts into open violence justified the adoption of certain rules of conduct that all s a t e r e of the cosamunlty were required to follow in all inter* personal transactions. In order to maintain the effectiveness of the established rules ofconduct* violation became punishable through the authorl ty of the 'eomounl ty .

16

Jta tttnmi' society grows into «ore oompl ex forma, governftmeticmfi heire si so been expanding to supply the needs Of tH« eo&qniti.tty*

fhe poet office I© n cowman government

enterprise among alt nation© ♦ Whll# historical data fail to reveal the origin of 4PtY6MHMmtv writer®, have expounded their convict Ions largely through logical deduction*

llobbse auggeeted that government

was formed as a coup roctifee of conflicting interests, and ft® s result of war because people wanted peace*

John Locke

on. the Other hand maintained the Idea that government «a» an agreessent aaong all Individuals In the community on bqssel bftsit, which It somewhat similar to r^us^eau* a Boci&l Ckmtr&et*

In order to have their common interest fulfilled,

Locke stated, they were willing 'to give up part of their aktn free will, thus marking the end of the ***tate of Mature**

The Idea of government by cosa&on cons eat can bo traced continually during the last two thousand years in the history Of Civil last Ion*

It m m

only Interrupted by th® rise of

strong rulers and divine right doctrines in the and fighteenth cantu ri as*

•ewenteenth

The kings In the kiddle £ges

could not take act lone again© t the person or property of 'their subjects except by process of law*

% & ere who Ignored

the laws were considered tyrants* Concentration of power in on-? ruler, or a handful of 1^1 ©fri, reeponalble to nobody tends to open the door to contempt of the will of the people*

Carlyle mentioned in

17

his book Maehlavelh* a view that the people as a whole is 8 wiser, more prudent and less variable than a prince# It Is not uncommon that when a ruler has mad© a mistake, sup­ pression has been used to overcome people*© discontent in order to maintain his position*

However, In the long run,

the greater the pressure, the harder the rebound usually is. There would be one day that the discontent of the people would mount to such an extent that it would explode into a revolution#

It would cause not only the downfall of the

ruler, but also would shake the social structure and would result In social unrest and chaos before a new social order could be established*

The French Revolution of 1789 and the

Reign of Terror in the years following are an evidence# Political freedom, In the modern sense implies that *all political authority is derived from the community, the community which is composed of men who are capable of direct­ ing and controlling their public as well as private lives to 9 ends determined by themselves*11 While political freedom implies government by common consent, leadership is indispensable in collective action* The purpose of setting a government is similar to the hiring of a servant or the owning of a machine specially designed to do a certain Job*

The abler and more trustworthy the

Servant or the more powerful and more efficient the machine, the less will t h e master worry about the job to be done* It is quite possible that an able servant might betray his

master wild becomes a master Instead of a servant.

Likewise

S powerful machine might become out of control and do more harm than g o o d .

However, too much Interference upon the

servant while he Is working would not only lower the servant's working eff iciency but also Imposes upon the master an un­ due drain of energy, thus defeating the purpose of hiring the servant.

Emphasis should lie more on selecting the

right person before hiring or the right kind of machine before installation* Since not everyone has the time or the required ability to administer the complicated affairs of government or to formulate rules binding all Individuals in the eosumnity and acceptable to all of the community, a representative fora of government appears to be the most suitable,

feople

choose those whom they trust and whom they consider suitable to fill the seats in the legislative and executive offices. While the legislators and the chief executive are allowed .a free hand in tackling problems of the state, what the problems are* or what the urgent problems are, have to ho decided by the people.

The people might not be Interested

in how a lob is done, but they have the right to know If %boy are inter©sted.

The legislators and the chief executive

are responsible to the people by whom they are entrusted lith .the. power of government. r

What an efficient and representative form of government

should be like is largely a subject of political science

19

M. pot included in this thesis.

However, certain re-

gjblrei^iihf safeguarding political freedom in a state are so ipporfeafit that due treatment is necessary. Criteria mSESSEt of SPolitical Freedom S B S B jjg S S jS g B Q iS S S S * SS&S8ZS38S58SBBSS

SBB SSSSSSu

The first requirement is a universal adult suffrage system to give every adult member of the community a voice in deoidlng who should run the government and make Its laws. Son# people favor the exclusion of the winsane*1 and the ^hgbltual criminal,*4 However* the difficulty in defining insanity and habitual criminality lessen the practicability of such modifications. In choosing representatives and government officers, it would be tremendously difficult to attain a majority of the vote if every adult member were a candidate.

For practi­

cal purposes, It seems desirable In election campaigns to have political parties, constantly keeping people Informed about their platforms and candidates. To make the choice less pus sling, the smaller the number of parties, the better,

h bi-party system Is suggested

to be ideal, as a single party system simply rules out the possibility of any alternatives. Under the bi-party system, when one party is al acted through majority votes to run the government, the contending party automatically becomes the opposition party In both

20

the legislature and outside government.

For its own purpose

$m the next election,, it Is always ad van tag ecu s for the

opposition party to heap a watchful eye on every thing the present government does.

In case anything goes wrong, the

opposition party would raise questions in the legislature wgMi the executive officers are expected to answer.

Outside

the legislature, public opinion would also be aroused.

Un­

less the party In government can convince the voters that their alarm Is a false one, it® position in the next election would be doomed. To beep government from the influence of inertia, rigid terms of office are considered by many political scientists to be undesirable.

The reason they give is that it puts

people in a helpless position when the government is known to be heading for some serious mistake and yet the day of reckoning is still far away.

It Is just as frustrating as

when the only child of the family suddenly suffers from appendicitis at midnight and the only transportation to the nearest doctor will not leave till eight o ’clock the next morning. It is not impossible that the government and the op­ position party might enter Into agreement to form a monopoly In the control of government.

Therefore, although expediency

makes it desirable to have only two parties to run for govern­ ment offices, legal limitation upon the number of political parties is extremely dangerous.

21

Til* right to criticise th® ©tat® or the government and to make suggestion as to what should be done and how to do it is another prerequisite of political freedom* Under such provision, a ©ibisan may even choose to put his criticism or suggestion down in black and white for publi­ cation or b© broadcast over radio networks*

Although indi­

viduals enjoy freedom of expression, nobody is allowed to wantonly attack other individuals so as to deprive them of their f reedom and prestige*

Freedom of expression sometimes

©an be impinged by means of control through ownership of the press by the few. When a group of people find out that their ©pinions toward the government are similar, they have, as a part of political freedom, the right to gather together to discuss their views.

Bo long as their move does not violate the

existing law, they have the right to publicise their point of view and to make public demonstration.

As soon as they

©an gather enough votes, they have the right to replace either th© government party or the opposition or to combine with either* Any member of the community has the right to choose his own residence and to travel around the country.

Ho

p©rs©n including the police, except with a warrent Issued by the court under due process of law, shall be allowed to enter a eitlsen's dwelling without his permission.

No person

22

4&A1' stop him while he is going from one place to another the ease of emergency. B© public authority can arrest any individual unless there is a charge against him.

In such ease he has the

right to he tried before an open and impartial court, free from any outside influence and by a Jury consisting of disinterested persons.

Whan he Is found guilty, he is

subject t© punishment stated in the law concerning such offences.

Before such punishment is carried out, he has

the right to appeal if fee considers the trial unfair.

He

is entitled to a number of trials, as the law permits, by © superior court, so long as he is dissatisfied with all the previous trials and keeps appealing until the final Verdict is reached by the supreme court. Cultural Freedom Cultural freedom inelu&es freedom to believe and worship; freedom to pursue knowledge; freedom of recreation and amusement and to spend one* s leisure. t h e meaning of cultural freedom Is to some extent

empty* as people* e modes of behavior and patterns of thought are generally shaped by the social environment,

kn Oriental

fable of anonymous origin presents an interesting example: a man, broken-hearted In his romantic venture, was rescued from his suicidal attempt to drown himself in a

25

Vlvor* hermit*

Be became not# only a woman-hater but also a resolute Living In a lonely hut on top of a deserted hill,

he succeeded In shunning himself from all human beings except during hie Infrequent and reluctant visits to a nearby village tort for necessities*

A forsaken baby was picked up by the

hermit who was on his way back from one of the mart trips. Be decided to keep the baby for M s company. Twelve years had passed since then*

The baby grew

to late a healthy lad and decided one day to follow the hermit in a visit to the village mart#

The sight of the

giggling young women disturbed the lad greatly and thus he asked the hermit what they were* the old h e m l t *

0These are tigers*0 warned

’ "Whenever there is nobbdy around, theyfli

pelsen you and ea t you up *" * Back to the lonely hut* the hermit jokingly inquired the lad what impressed him most during the trip* tigers** sighed the Innocent lad*

rtThe

0Every time they looked

at me, I just wished they haven* t the habit of eating people.* to the lad* the only alternative he could choose from Is between woman and life, because what the hermit had said to him was always truth*

It Is obvious that the hermit had

deliberately deprived the lad of his cultural freedom, but to the lad, it was similar to the weather, which everybody talks about yet nobody could prevent.

24

Gialtiupel freedom, like any klnd of freedom, has meaning only when there are alternatives*

If a state religion is

the only religion known to the people of a given state, i t w o u l d have no trouble enjoying the devoted faith and wholehearted worship of the whole population, provided the priests are of somewhat above-average intelligence and do not over-abuse their religious privileges*

Under a given

standard of value Judgements, it leaves no room for anyone t© hesitate whether on© should go to heaven or to hell* The Introduction of a new religion from a foreign land would in the course of time upset the hitherto unchallenged position enjqyed by the old, unless the promised heaven of the state religion is accepted as superior to that envisaged by the new doctrine*

Upholding of the state religion by

means ©f political persecution and social pressure would only invite more cynical Interpretations of the reel motives behind such actions,

Coercion and tortures would create a

number of martyrs whose sacrifice would arouse the sympathy of the people and indirectly help the spread of foreign teachlag. By freedom to believe and freedom to worship Is meant

not only the tolerance of foreign religions but also equal treatment towards different churches by the authority of the community*

Although one diurch has the right to denounce

other religious teachings than Its own as heresies, the

25

■ m m m -right- should automatical!y be granted to other churches.

fha state in Its own capacity should refrain from tell­ ing the people to which church they should go as true and patriotic cltlsens instead of being Mun-thisM or "un-that*. 0li the other hand, as long as the churches are left free to toll, their congregations that teachings foreign to them areheresiee, it is the right of individual members of the community to decide which "heresy" suits them best. r

What is true ©f freedom to believe and freedom to

worship Is also true of freedom to pursue knowledge,

itnow-

ledg© is the sum of Infometlon conserved by civilisation. It is the foundation upon which human wisdom, in finding out the beat of everything, is based,

true knowledge,

which is generally referred to as the *truth", is indispens­ able t© human wisdom while falsa knowledge is frequently the cause of human mistakes. There are two common ways of pursuing knowledge.

One

is by Instruction and learning and the other Is by research. Since that la no bard and fast mean to tell at the first sight whether knowledge is true or false without careful and patient testing, the best way to attain truth is to give every school of thought or every branch of teaching an equal and fair opportunity to compete.

Any effort on

the part of the state to promote or to suppress any school ©f ideas ©r any branch of teaching reduces the number of

26

alternatives In the -field of learning and research and limit# the citizens® freedom to pursue knowledge, $ta same prineIple applies to entertainment and recreation, Mnkt PScreation and amusement an Individual enjoys and how stiss 'should spend one' s leisure are subjective and personal matters,

It may be true that an average American enjoys

Jams music better than opera sung in Italian,

It is also

possible in the same family that one brother enjoys singing while the other spends all his spar© moments reading in a quiet room*

If the parents should Insist that both shall

spend half of their leisure hours singing and the rest reading, both brothers would undoubtedly become unhappy, or at least less happy then they used to be, -£

Likewise, if any state authority should try to suppress

jasz music in favor of the public performance of Italian opera, unless jazz music is objectively tested and deter­ mined by technical experts, on purely scientific grounds, to be harmful to public health, it Is an infringement of individual freedom, JsgggggJ^ Economic freedom mean© that every individual has the right to pursue whatever trade, profession or calling he I l k w f to engage in any lawful employment for wages or to save and Invest; to own property; and to buy whatever he wants.

27

According to the Classical economist®, individual economic Interests can bast be safeguarded by the individuals concerned.

Leaving the individual to decide what he can

d© best* the community is assumed to arrive soon at an equilibrium point where all individual© are In positions where their efforts are most productive and would bring about the best results.

On the other hand* each individual

will receive the highest possible return a© compared to return© he would have obtained by engaging in various other occupations or callings as alternative© within his capacity, 1*© ensure evexy Individual the rlgbt to pursue i&iatever trade* profession* or cel ling fee likes; to engage in any lawful employment fear wages or profit; to save and invest; and to own property; there should be no barriers of entry of any sort*

One Medieval institution* namely* the Guild

system* is ©n example of a restraint of occupational freedom. Under this system* only member© of the guild were allowed to engage in business in the industry concerned*

Admission

into the guild was subject to a number of severe restrictions which afforded only those having special connections with members* and sometimes the influential members* an opportunity to be admitted* Abuses of occupational freedom also take the form of dj^criminations against people of certain race* people of foreign nationality* people of certain social status* people

28

of particular complex Ion 8 and so on,

Equal opportunity In

some eases, a s some recent .writers have pointed out, may open te P-

2.

Ibid.- pp. 268-268.

S.

Eric RollsA History

4.;

Ibid.. p.

ft.

Sidpcy Ball * iJ t o i i m s l M M M M M B