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The Politics of Envy
| Article
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10248 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1986 |
10,663 Words |
| Author
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Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora
Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora, born in Barcelona in 1924,
studied law and philosophy at the universities of Madrid and
Bonn. He has been a director of the Diplomatic School and
minister in the Spanish government. He is a member of the
Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of Spain and
president of the bimonthly Razon Espanola, a magazine of
political thought. He is author of sixteen books translated
into several languages. This is his first presentation in
English. |
The political class, due to the unity of sovereign power and the relative scarcity of its delegations and participations, subdivides always into the two sectors of those who strive to continue holding the reins of power and enjoying the perquisites and those who aspire to replace them. To achieve their respective ends, both sides make use of the following three resources: power, technical capability, and popular support. Power is illegitimate pressure on people and ranges from threats to revolution, including at times the abuse of power. Technical capability is the guarantee of administrative efficacy, particularly in the economic and juridical areas. Popular support is tacit when there is a consensus and there is no resistance, and it is expressed in the streets or in elections. The greater the popular support, the more deeply governments intervene in the lives of the people - which is what has been happening in the West since the end of the eighteenth century. This outcome was not directed by the masses, but rather by the bourgeoise, a political class that replaced the hereditary monarchy and the blood aristocracy.
It is an intrinsic need that the governing minority be divided. But why should the governed be divided? This is a radical question not often formulated - as if it concerned an obvious fact, which it does not. The normal procedure is for the population to form a common front with active or passive resistance against tyranny, and constantly but moderately to demand greater order, justice or more development when an administration is reasonably receptive. Solidarity is a spontaneous and logical outcome in every specific group, as may be seen from sociobiological studies of animals.
The governed are not political enemies by nature of the political fact; they are so rather because the political class tries with great effort to divide them. The motive is clear; if the governing minority is fragmented, and if the various factions aim for popular support, they will forcibly round up the masses into opposing camps. It is not the case that a few bees want to leave the beehive, but rather that every queen requires her own swarm. If those who govern did not systematically use popular support, there would be little support for demagogues - no parties of the masses. The elite - the more so the less powerful they are - divide societies in order to govern. Let us reconstruct this process.
The limiting hypothesis is that of separatism. A region separates from the main land to satisfy some prince's ambition for power or that of some minority who created the national or independent consciousness in the first place. But here
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