Leadership Perspective: Rousseau & Thomas Aquinas

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Rousseau wrote, Born citizen of a free state and member of the sovereign people, however feeble the influence of my voice in public affairs, the right to vote upon them imposes upon me the duty on instructing myself. (Rousseau, 2004, 23|) This comment is applicable even today to the general society in the U.S. when it comes to our election process. In the resent US Presidential election the victory of Barack Obama has proven the quote by Rousseau to be right on the truth podium.

Obama asks the people during his election campaign not to accept politics, which creates cynicism, conflicts and division among the people, but to remember that people of every creed and color had fought and bleed together to uphold the same flag. In order to face the challenges present today, like unemployment and health issues, America has to come together. Even if its people do not look alike, they want the same future for their coming generations.

Barack Obama believes that the issue of race cannot be ignored and people need to come together to solve challenges of education, healthcare and employment. He says that people need to address the accounts of racial injustice which the country has faced and remind themselves that the reason the numerous disparities exist within the African American communities is mainly due to the inequalities that had taken place in their earlier generations caused by the cruel era of slavery.

All these elements could have easily turned into hate speech with negative political results. But, this Obama turned these affairs towards a constructive future and people rushed to vote and each rendered their feeble support for the man and thus proves the contemporary nature, justification and truth of Rousseaus vision under the framework of democracy.

Rousseau states in his Social Contract, As soon as disobedience can be practised [sic] with impunity. It can be practised [sic] legitimately; and as the stronger is always right, it is only necessary to always arrange to be the strongest. (Rousseau, 2004, 2|5) However, in the context of immigration issue facing our nation today, it can be stated that the entire statement is not correct and though the stronger, in this case the government, has every right to be right, in practice we find a very liberal state of affairs. However, in the context of disobedience there is an underlying truth in the present context but there are justified reasons behind this disobedience.

In view of the immigration issue and the disobedience trait, it can be stated that Criminological theories related to organization and criminal behavior analyzes the circumstances which lead individuals or groups to perform organized crime. Integrating various propositions of the traditional criminological theories and criminal behaviors with the above theories, a theory regarding organizational crime can be formulated. Criminological theories state that crime is done to pursue self-interest. Some associations which are defined as criminal and outlawed by governments provide training to the criminals. Some people deliberately choose crime as their profession.

The mafia as an underworld institution is too familiar today to need an elaborate definition. Mafia group is closely knit, secret and insist on the total loyalty of the members. Generally organized in families, each with their own bosses and indulge in organized crime such as gambling, loan sharking, drug-peddling and prostitution. It is an exclusive group that trades in organized crime. This is the case of establishing identity and the mafia helped the immigrants to establish this identity. Though there is enough support from the government, the immigrants find themselves to be marginalized. This evokes a sense of disobedience and the organized criminals use this frustration in their favor. Thus, the statement by Rousseau is still relevant today, at lest in the case of immigrants.

An informal reading of his work, Chapter VIII, The Civil State, Rousseau suggests that his ideas do not simply mean that humans in this state of nature always act morally. On the contrary, the terms, like wickedness or justice, are merely not applicable to pre-political societies. Humans there can behave like a ferocious animal. They are nice since they are self-contained and are, thus, are not the focal point to the frailties of the political society. Rousseau viewed the society as an artificial entity and thought that the growth of any society, mainly the development of public interdependence, is unfavorable for the welfare of the humans.

However, with the intervention of well formulated leadership it is possible to gain civil developments for the humankind. He said that the advancements in the various fields of knowledge has made the governments more and more powerful letting them squash a persons liberty. In his The Social Contract, Rousseau creates concepts of equality and personal liberty. His believed, in order to obey the natural state of man and for the total survival of a state, we continuously need to change our ideas of equality. Poor representation of some citizen, in the interest of the state, is clearly shown an exit way for leaving the society.

This was Rousseaus political way to stabilize the inconsistent relations in the self-interest of the people and for the expansion of the political freedom. When the minorities leave a state, its survival and the various reasons for creating conflict forever remain unchecked. The only way to control, thus, is proper guidance and a well formulated leadership principal becomes the basic norm of the Civil State.

Thomas Aquinas suggests in his writing On the Government of Rulers that there is a fundamental need of a King, ruler or a government to direct the population under civil state. He also pays a lot of attention for shifting individual rights onto the formation of the state. When the state has been created, it should be due to the realization that the different elements humans cannot handle on their own can be handled better by an added centralized power, which is the state.

However, Thomas Aquinas also believed that the state could fail humans at certain times and it should never enjoy an unequal share of power in comparison to the humans in the previous state of nature. If humans gave up their liberty then it would mean that they are giving up their ability to negotiate with other members in the state. This would be like slavery. Thomas Aquinas had noticed a lot of fundamental difference between human nature and the society. He believed that humans were better when an individual is in a state of nature. It is the common state of all the other animals and is the condition humans were in long before the beginning of society and civilization itself. (Aquinas, 2004).

The idea of his has often been led to assigning the use of noble savage to him. He, however never used this expression himself and it does not properly present his thinking for the natural goodness of all humankind. His idea concerning natural goodness is complicated and thus, very easily misunderstood.

References

Aquinas, T. (2004). On the Government of Rulers. In J. Thomas Wren, Douglas A. Hicks & Terry L. Price (Ed.) The International Library of Leadership: Traditional classics on leadership. Volume 1. (pp. 23-31). NY: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Rosseau, J.J. (2004). The Social Contract. In J. Thomas Wren, Douglas A. Hicks & Terry L. Price (Ed.) The International Library of Leadership: Traditional classics on leadership. Volume 1. (pp. 75-82). NY: Edward Elgar Publishing.

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Leadership Perspective: Rousseau & Thomas Aquinas

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