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John Neville Figgis, Medievalist: The Roots of English Political Pluralism
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“There are, there can be no rights except the right of the State, and there are, and there can be no other authority than the authority of the Republic”
E. Combes
This then is the problem as Figgis sees it. The idea embedded in the quote from
Combes represents the greatest threat to liberty at the beginning of the 20
th
century and,
If Figgis were alive, he might add, at the beginning of the 21
st
century.
I
John Neville Figgis (1866-1919) was one of the leading scholars in the school generally referred to English Political Pluralism, a school of thought that did not sustain a long history but one which, in hindsight, may have some important lessons for contemporary political philosophy. Modern Communitarians, many of who would disown the label, have a number of commonalities, among which is the view that liberal individualism has failed to deliver on its promise to secure a better world. None of them though take much stock in the role of the State as actually adding to the dysfunction of liberalism. None give any real thought to the problem of the modern State as a potential threat to human freedom. Figgis on the other hand saw the rising omnipotent State and liberal individualism as two parts of the same problem. The one aided and abetted the other. Liberal individualism isolates the individual as “citizen”, a concept that is uniquely
singular, making it easier for the State to impose itself into, or onto, the lives of people.
He saw a missing link, if you will, between the State on the one hand and the individual
on the other. That link is the multitude of groups to which all individuals belong and their
place in what we would today label as “civil society”. For Figgis these intermediaries
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1
“There are, there can be no rights except the right of the State, and there are,
and there can be no other authority than the authority of the Republic”
E. Combes
This then is the problem as Figgis sees it. The idea embedded in the quote from
Combes represents the greatest threat to liberty at the beginning of the 20
th
century and,
If Figgis were alive, he might add, at the beginning of the 21
st
century.
I
John Neville Figgis (1866-1919) was one of the leading scholars in the school generally
referred to English Political Pluralism, a school of thought that did not sustain a long
history but one which, in hindsight, may have some important lessons for contemporary
political philosophy. Modern Communitarians, many of who would disown the label,
have a number of commonalities, among which is the view that liberal individualism has
failed to deliver on its promise to secure a better world. None of them though take much
stock in the role of the State as actually adding to the dysfunction of liberalism. None
give any real thought to the problem of the modern State as a potential threat to human
freedom. Figgis on the other hand saw the rising omnipotent State and liberal
individualism as two parts of the same problem. The one aided and abetted the other.
Liberal individualism isolates the individual as “citizen”, a concept that is uniquely
singular, making it easier for the State to impose itself into, or onto, the lives of people.
He saw a missing link, if you will, between the State on the one hand and the individual
on the other. That link is the multitude of groups to which all individuals belong and their
place in what we would today label as “civil society”. For Figgis these intermediaries
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