America, Aristotle, and the Politics of a Middle Class by Leslie G Rubin

Author:Leslie G Rubin [Rubin, Leslie G]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Philosophy, History & Theory, Democracy, Political Ideologies, Social Science, Ancient & Classical, Political Science, Social Classes & Economic Disparity, American Government, Political, General, History & Surveys
ISBN: 9781481300568
Google: ov3RswEACAAJ
Goodreads: 36708288
Publisher: Baylor University Press
Published: 2018-01-15T06:19:26+00:00

Implicit in Smith’s argument is the retort that Livingston falls into the very trap of which Smith warns New York. Livingston sees what Aristotle saw in the poor: a lack of sympathy with those who have more. He fails to see what Aristotle and Smith observe, that the very wealthy suffer from the same myopia when contemplating the challenges of the less wealthy. The greater sympathy Livingston attributes to the rich, Smith (channeling Aristotle) associates with the middle—those who partake a little of both wealth and poverty and can see the world through both lenses. On the other hand, Livingston posits wealth as a hindrance to political success, due to the envy of the non-rich. He takes for granted that the public will choose the wise and the virtuous over the merely rich men who are neither, because inheritors of great wealth are the objects of envy, not admiration. Smith insists that a truly republican government must both distinguish the class of “small fortune” that Livingston absorbs into the upper class (e.g., “I hope, sir, we are all aristocrats”) and appreciate the middle class, per se. When a republic forgets the political ballast and the characteristic virtues supplied by the middling element—neglects to see and cultivate the middle as a class and as a class whose distinct interests are most compatible with the interests of all—the project of self-government will fail.

Smith’s republic may need the talents and knowledge of well-educated citizens, but it must also appreciate the common sense of the ordinary yeomen and provide opportunities for the latter’s political virtues to influence lawmaking. The men of talent who don’t grow too rich and the virtuous who strive for self-sufficiency through self-restraint, keeping the middling virtues as touchstones, would occupy Smith’s middling class of substantial yeomen. Though Smith struggles to describe the institutional arrangements that would foster and sustain such a class—that would keep the middle in the middle and its way of life dominant—he clearly argues for their necessity. As he sees the natural progression of society without such arrangements, either the rich or the poor will come to mastery and enslave the rest.

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