Hegel's Theory of the Modern State (Cambridge Studies in the History and Theory of Politics)

Cambridge Studies in the History and Theory of Politics

by Shlomo Avineri

Cambridge Studies in the History & Theory of Politics
This is the 1st full-length study in English of Hegel's political philosophy. Drawing on his philosophical works, political tracts & personal correspondence it shows how his concern with social problems influenced his concept of state.
Prefaced
Beginnings
Positivity & freedom
The modernization of Germany
The new era
Modern life & social reality
The owl of Minerva & the critical mind
The political economy of modern society
Social classes, representation & pluralism
The state: the consciousness of freedom
War
The English Reform Bill: the social problem again
History: the progress towards the consciousness of freedom
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, History, Nonfiction

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 1973

About the author

Shlomo Avineri (Hebrew: שלמה אבינרי;‎ born Jerzy Wiener) was an Israeli political scientist. He was a professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He also served as a recurring visiting professor at the Central European University in Budapest, and as a fellow at Munich-based academic think tank Centrum für angewandte Politikforschung, offering advice to politicians.

Reviews

[Eren Buğlalılar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Çok başarılı bir anlatım. Avineri çok iyi bir aktarıcı, Hegel'in siyaset felsefesini ilk yazılarından son metinlerine dek yavaş yavaş yapılandırıyor. Önemli noktaları farklı yerlerde tekrarlayıp birbirine bağlayarak insanın aklına iyice sokuyor.

Siyaset felsefesi ile ilgilenenler, Marksist düşüncenin Hegelcilikle ilişkisine dair fikir sahibi olmak isteyenler mutlaka bir gözatsın.

[Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

read sporadically since september, now filling in the gaps. probably the single best introduction to hegel’s political thought, with appropriate biographical and historical context. it pushes back against all the unprincipled and simplifying readings of hegel that popper and russell produced. you get a really broad overview which is really worth reading because it’s contained in just over 200 pages, and makes hegel comprehensible without having to read the encyclopedia. there is still more left to read and understand, but you could read this book alone and then move on with your life. i really hate the mysticism around hegel and this book does wonders for dispelling that mysticism.

my dad was reading avineri back in the 90s. apparently avineri’s birth name was “jerzy wiener”.

[Wessel van Rensburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to read this book because Fukuyama, in the Origins of Political Order, claims Hegel saw in the defeat of the patrimonial Prussian army at the battle of Jena, the triumph of the modern state.

Why did that intrigue me? I am fascinated and worried by the failure of the "new" South Africa. And I suspect this failure has much to do with the fact that South Africans (like many elsewhere, including in the west) have a weak grasp of the the role and importance of the state in securing the kind of society South Africans say they want. The modern state has been taken for granted. South Africa is returning to a kind of patrimonial state.

Hegel's ideas on the modern state has gotten a bad wrap. Not least because of phrases like "Es ist der Gang Gottes in der Welt, dass der Staat ist." This has been translated as "the existence of the state is the presence of God in the world" and confirmed prejudices that Hegel was for an authoritarian all encompassing state.

Slomo Avineri argues convincingly that this is not how one should read Hegel. Much of the book is in fact devoted to argue how Hegel has been misinterpreted and mistranslated, especially in English.

Hegel had an ambiguous relationship to what he called the role of civil society (Hegel defined civil society as a form of market society as opposed to institutions of modern nation state) in the state. On the one hand he saw it as a great achievement and a source of creativity and freedom which the state should not encroach upon - and in the other he feared the consequences for society if it was not reigned in form time to time. Tax was a favourite tool of his.

Hegel rejected the theory held up to then that the role of the state is only the protection of property. The problem of Germany (which was weak, unlike some European states like France) was that there was no public interest, but only particular individual interests. The making of public property into private was nothing but the dissolution of the state.

The state requires a "universal centre". Belonging to a community, to a people, is the "absolute ethical life" because it is its own ends (Not just to get something back). Property, although it can belong to an individual person, is not individual in nature, because property pertains to the person as recognised by others. Possession becomes property through the recognition of others. Property ownership - by an individual - is therefor social.

Hegel's model of the modern state is "free from old absolutism, based on representation, served by a rationally orientated bureaucracy, allows space for voluntary organisations", and tries to strike a balance between people as self interested individuals and people part of a political community.

For Hegel it was indeed that through the modern state a long process of the development of human reason had become real.

Avineri's writing is accesible, much more so than Hegel, but his prose in general is a little dry. At times I felt he failed to critically query Hegel's positions. Hegel for example did not think language or religion matters for the creation of a modern state. Only that people should be prepared to fight in defence if their common interest if need be. But why would people want to join others in war? Hegel never seems to consider this in depth.

All in all it's still well worth a read.

[Bernard English · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since it deals with the more concrete social issues, this is the best place to begin learning about Hegel. No it doesn't cover his overall philosophy, which is so technical that many will give up and just miss out on a lot of the Hegel's valuable insights. The other reason to start here is that Avineri clears up misconceptions about Hegel which should never have arisen. For example, many critiques, including the great Ludwig von Mises I recall, cite the fact that Hegel writes the "State" with a capital "S" and say it points to his worship of the state. Avineri points out the obvious fact that all nouns are capitalized in German, it's just that translators have chosen to arbitrarily capitalize one word, state. There many more reasons why Hegel cannot be counted as a state worshipper, though of course he did support some version of the state and was certainly not an anarchist.

In the epilogue another illusion is corrected: "Hegel opposed manifestations of nascent German nationalism, thinking ethnic ties were just an extension from the past. On this point, however, he misread the signs of the times. . . . It is the irony of the fate of Hegel's philosophy that in the twentieth century Hegel has been mistakenly and ignorantly branded as the harbinger of modern, and specifically German, nationalism." Earlier, Avineri indicates he was not even an anti-Semite and believed Jews should have the right to vote. It's hard to think it worth the effort to approach the rest of his more technical philosophy until you overcome some of the common misconceptions about Hegel.

I've read some other books on Hegel and this is by far the most readable and can't recommend it enough.

[Henry Sienkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great analysis, I used it as one of the reference books for my last book, Centerlined.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful book for fully understanding Hegel's theory on the modern state and his ideas surrounding freedom.