ALS 5224
Issues in the Development of Liberal Stuides
Lecture 3
Developments of Concepts & Practice
of the Liberated Mind:
Citizen- and Labor-liberating Movements
Wing-kwong Tsang
Ho Tim Bldg. Rm 416
Ext. 6922
Theoretical Origins of Modern Liberated Mind
 Immanuel Kant’s Idea of enlightenment
“Enlightenment is man’s release from his selfincurred tutelage. Tutelage is man’s inability to
make use of his understanding without direction
from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its
cause lies not in reason but in lack of resolution and
courage to use it without direction from another.
Spere aude (Dare to know)! ‘Have courage to use
your own reason!’ ─ that is the motto of
enlightenment.” (Kant, 1784/1957, p. 85)
Theoretical Origins of Modern Liberated Mind
 Immanuel Kant’s Conditions of enlightenment
 At individual level, enlightened individual is a ‘scholar’ who
possesses the mindset with “the propensity and vocation to
free thinking” (p. 92) and the ability “to make public use of
one’s reason at every point.” (p. 87)
 At societal level,
 enlightened social institutions should be structured in a way to
guarantee “the freedom to make public use of one’s reason” (p.
87) that is to “let every citizen …make his comments freely and
publicly, i.e., through writing, on the erroneous aspects of the
present institution.” (p. 89)
 These institutions must submit themselves to be “subject to
doubt before the public.” (p.90)
Analytical Framework of Origins of the
Development of Modern Liberated Mind
Liberating institutional Context:
Institutional guarantee of public criticism
and scrutiny of public institutions
Democratic Nation-state
Citizenship
Capitalistic Market
Workers’ rights
Liberated mind: Propensity and vocation
of using one’s reason publicly
Analytical Roadmap
 Theory of
Capitalism
 Theory of Nation
Building
 Theory of State
Formation
 Theory of workers’
rights
 Theory of
citizenship rights
Theory of Capitalism
Foundation of Capitalism:
 Ontological foundation of Capitalism―
C.B. Macpherson’s conception of Possessive
individualism
 “Man, the individual, is seen as absolute natural proprietor
of his own capacities, owing nothing to society for them.
Man’s essence is freedom to use his capacities in search of
satisfaction. This freedom is limited properly only by some
principle of utility or utilitarian natural law which forbids
harming others. Freedom therefore is restricted to, and
comes to be identified with, domination over things, not
domination over men. The clearest form of domination over
things is the relation of ownership or possession. Freedom
is therefore possession. Everyone is free, for everyone
possesses at least his own capacities.
Theory of Capitalism
Foundation of Capitalism:
 Ontological foundation of Capitalism― Possessive
individualism
 “Society is seen, not (as it had been) as a system of
relations of domination and subordination between men
and classes held together by reciprocal rights and duties,
but as a lot of free equal individuals related to each other
through their possessions, that is, related as owners of
their own capacities and what they have produced and
accumulated by the use of their capacities. The relation of
exchange (the market relation) is seen as the fundamental
relation of society.
 “Political society is seen as relational device for the
protection of property, including capacities even life and
liberty are considered as possessions, rather than as
social rights with correlative duties.”
Theory of Capitalism
Foundation of Capitalism:
 Institutional foundation of capitalism ― Property
rights and right of ownership
Exclusivity of ownership: Right to use
• Totality of use domain
• Sovereignty of decision
Transferability of ownership: Right to transfer
Entitlement of revenue generated from property: Right to
appropriate
Theory of Capitalism
Foundation of Capitalism:
 Structural foundation of capitalism
 Domination of property rights of capital over
those of other factors of production
 “Capitalism is a system based on competition
between free producers using free labor with
free commodities, ‘free’ meaning its availability
for sale and purchase on a market”
(Wallerstein, 1987)
Theory of Capitalism
Foundational contradiction in Capitalism:
 Conflicts between property rights of capital
and wage labor
Foundational contradiction in Capitalism
Property rights of
capital
Exclusivity of right to
use
Totality use domain
Sovereignty of decision
Right to transfer
Right to appropriate
returns generated
from property
 Property rights of
labor
 Exclusivity of right to
use
 Totality use domain
 Sovereignty of decision
 Right to transfer
 Right to appropriate
returns generated from
property
Developments of Workers’ Rights
 Struggles over capitalist rights to use wage-workers’
labor
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


Child-labor law
Working-hour legislation
Labor-holiday legislation
Labor-union legislation
Collective-bargaining rights
 Struggles over capitalist right to transfer (fire wage
workers)
 Rights to employment
 Struggle over revenue of production
 Right to salary negotiation
 Right to minimum wage
Developments of Workers’ Rights
 Class Struggles as promised in Communist
Manifesto
 The Russian revolution at the beginning of the
20th century
 The Chinese revolution at the mid of the 20th
century
 Constitutions of the East-European Bloc in the
mid of the 20th century
 Collapses of socialist regimes in Europe at the
end of the 20th century
 The end of a century-long experiments of
socialism
高中通識教育個別課題的問題
˙有學者直指 「通識教育好白癡」；據報章引述，他
的說法是：「有單元真係好白癡，好似『閒暇與生活』
咁，邊使教 ，學生自己都識體驗啦，重話要考
試
。」
 閒暇與生活的課題設計偶舉
閒暇與階級及生產關係
農業及封建主義社會中閒暇的界定：一種特權與奢侈
工業及資本主義社會中閒暇的界定：一種權利及消費主義的建立
閒暇權利與現代工會運動
爭取法定工時
爭取有薪勞工假期
閒暇與消費主義
閒暇的物化與商品化
閒暇商品化的後果：例如環境問題
Theory of Citizenship Development
Reinhard Bendix’s Definition of Citizenship
(1964, Nation-Building & Citizenship)
Individualistic and plebiscitarian membership
before the sovereign and nation-wide public
authority
Development of citizenship: “the codification of
the rights and duties of all adults who are
classified as citizens”.
Theory of Citizenship Development
T.H. Marshall’s thesis of citizenship
development (1973, Citizenship & Social Class)
Development of civil rights in the 18th century
and the constitution of the Court of Justice
and the Rule of Law
Development of the political rights in the 19th
century and the constitution of the
parliamentary system and the democratic
state
Development of the social rights in the 20th
century and the constitution of the social
service departments and the welfare state
Theory of Citizenship Development
 Anthony Giddens’ critique on Marshall (1982, Class
division, class conflict & citizenship rights)
 The nature of citizenship development: Evolution vs.
conflict
 The directionality of citizenship development: Linear vs.
dialectic
 The distinct status of economic civil rights or industrial
rights
 David Held’s proposal of environmental rights and
feminist rights
 Michael Mann & Bryan Turner’s historical
trajectories of citizenship development in different
historical and national contexts
Theory of Citizenship Development
Thomas Janoski’s Typology of Citizenship
rights (1998, Citizenship & Civil Soceity)
Distinction between the state of being (negative
freedom) and the power of doing (positive
freedom)
Distinction between the public and private
spheres
Participation right as the fourth right
Negative
Freedom
Positive
Freedom
Theory of State Formation
 Max Weber’s Definition of the State
“Today, however, we have to say that a state is a human
community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of
the legitimate use of physical force within a given
territory. Note that ‘territory’ is one of the
characteristics of the state. Specifically, at the present
time, the right to use physical force is ascribed to other
institutions or individuals only to the extent to which
the state permits it. The state is consider the sole
source of the ‘right’ to use violence.”
(Weber, 1946, p. 78)
Theory of State Formation
 Charles Tilly’s Definition of the State
An organization which control the population
occupying a definite territory is a state insofar as
(1) it is differentiated from other organizations
operating in the same territory; (2) it is
autonomous; (3) it is centralized; and (4) its
division are formally coordinated with one another.
(Tilly, 1975)
Theory of State Formation
The constituent features of modern state
The definitive territory
The definitive subjects
Monopoly of use of force and sovereign power
The public authority
Tilly’s Theory of State Formation
 Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 900-1992 (1992)
 Accumulation and concentration of coercion, and the growth and
formation of the state
 Accumulation and concentration of capital, and the formation and
growth of cities
 Coalition and conflict within the state
Class coalition and struggle in the realm of exploitation
Coalition and struggle between state authority and citizenship in the realm
of domination
 Coalition and conflict among states: The mechanism of war
preparation and making
Dialectic relationship between capital accumulation and warmaking
 Dialectic relationship between coercion accumulation and warmaking
 Dynamics of geopolitics and inter-state system in Europe
Coalition &
Struggle
between State
& Citizenship
Geopolitical Situation
Class Coalition
and Struggle
War
Preparation
& Making
Concentration
of coercion
Concentration
of Capital
Growth of
States
Growth of
Cities
Accumulation
of coercion
Accumulation
of Capital
Form of State
Tilly’s Conception of State Formation
Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of State Formation
 Definition of the State
“Using a variation of Max Weber’s famous formula, that the
state is an X (to be determined) which successfully claims
the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical and
symbolic violence over a definite territory and over the
totality of the corresponding population.” (Bourdieu, 1999,
p. 56)
 “The state is the culmination of a process of
concentration of different species of capital:
capital of physical force or instruments of coercion
economic capital,
cultural &/or information capital, and
symbolic capital.” (p. 57)
Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of State Formation
Project of constitution of physical & fiscal
efficacy of the state
Accumulation of physical capital
Internal physical capital accumulation: Policing system
External physical capital accumulation: Army (Military)
system
Accumulation of economic capital
Constitution of taxation and fiscal system
Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of State Formation
Project of constitution of symbolic efficacy
of the state
Concentration of informational capital: “The state
concentrates, treats, and redistributes information
and, most of all, effects a theoretical unification.
Taking the vantage point of the Whole, of society in
its totality, the state claims responsibility for all
operations of totalization (especially thanks to
census taking and statistics or national accounting)
and of objectivation through cartography (the
unitary representation of space from above) or
more simply through writing as an instrument of
accumulation of knowledge (e.g. archive), as well
as for all operation of codification as cognitive
unification.” (p. 61)
Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of State Formation
Project of constitution of symbolic efficacy
of the state
Concentration of cultural capital: “The state
contributes to the unification of the cultural market
by unifying all codes, linguistic and juridical, and
by effecting a homogenization of all forms of
communication, including bureaucratic
communication. Through classification systems
inscribed in law, through bureaucratic procedures,
educational structures and social rituals, the state
molds mental structures and imposes common
principles of vision and division, forms of thinking
that are to the civilized mind. … And it thereby
contributes to the construction of what is
commonly designated as national identity.” (p. 61)
Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of State Formation
Project of constitution of symbolic efficacy
of the state
Constitution of symbolic capital:
“Symbolic capital is any property (any form of capital
whether physical, economic, cultural or social) when it
is perceived by social agents endowed with categories
of perception which cause them to know it and to
recognize it, to give it value.” (p. 62)
Concentration of juridical capital
Nomination of state nobility
Theory of Nation Building
The nature of the concept of nation
Nation as objective and empirical
phenomenon
Nation as socially constructed reality and
historical and cultural artifact
Theory of Nation Building
The definition of nation
 Max Weber’s defines nation as community of
sentiment and pathos of partnership of a political
community
 Benedict Anderson’s defines nation as imagined
political community




imagined
Limited
Sovereign
Community of comradeship and fraternity
 Jurgen Habermas defines “nation as a
community of citizens.”(1994)
 H. BhaBha: Nation as narrative
Theory of of Nation-Building
Greenfeld's typology of nation-building
 Nation-building principle: Individualisticlibertarian —— Collectivistic-authoritarian
 Nation-building unit: Civic —— ethnic
Civic
Ethnic
Individualistic-libertarain
Type I
Volid
Collectivistic-authoritarian
Type II
Type III
Theory of of Nation-Building
Jurgen Habermas distinction between
Hereditary nationalism
Acquired nationalism
Theory of of Nation-Building
 Building blocks of nation building
Hereditary nationalism
Narrative of the land
Narrative of the people
Narrative of the common memories
Narrative of the common culture
Acquired nationalism
Narrative of citizenship
• Narrative of civil citizenship
• Narrative of political citizenship
• Narrative of social citizenship, etc.
Narrative of the public authority of the state
Citizen and Labor Movements in the
21th century
 Global-informational capitalism replaces industrial capitalism
 Polarization of globally mobile capitalist and locally immobile
proletarians
 Erosion of the structural basis of national labor movements
 The rise of the Empire and the erosion of the sovereignty of
nation-states
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Constitutions of authorities of international organization
Constitution of unilateral international politics
Evaporation of economic nationalism
Replacement of post-WWII welfare-state with competition state in
global-information context
 Fading away of solidarity basis for national citizen and labor
movements
Developments of enlightened mind and institutions
Citizenship
Development
Civil citizenship
Political citizenship
Social citizenship
Nation
Building
Narration of
Hereditary Nationality
Acquired Nationality
Globalization
Workers’ property
rights struggles
Development
of
Possessive
Individualism
Accumulation of
Cultural Capital
Symbolic Capital
State
Formation