Kant’s Political Philosophy: State, Law, and Republicanism
Kant’s Philosophy of State and Law
Immanuel Kant argues that the State must ensure the exercise of freedom as safely as possible through law, whose characteristic note is coercion. The law refers to real and concrete human actions without considering desires and dispositions. However, autonomous and free individuals are subjected to the ideal of the will represented in the State. This ideal is accepted by all rational wills. These are coercive laws, but they stem from liberty. In fact, they guarantee a balance between individual freedoms that could otherwise lead to unhappiness among them.
The law ensures that members and citizens are not subjects, but free individuals, subordinate only to obey the law to which they have given their prior consent, and which makes them equal.
From State of Nature to Civil Society
Kant states that peace is not a natural condition of humanity, but a laborious conquest, as the natural state of man is one of war. Kant believes the state of nature was a state of blind liberty, lawless and disorderly. The passage from the state of nature to civil society, or the transition from war and injustice, is achieved through an original pact. This pact is an imperative of Reason, a duty, and an obligation to form a state or civil society.
For Kant, the state implies the existence of coercive laws and established power backing them up, which constitutes a civil or legal status. No peace is possible in its natural state, only in a civil state that contains within itself three branches:
- The sovereign or legislative power
- Executive power
- Judicial power
International Relations and Perpetual Peace
Kant recognizes the necessity of a common juridical ordinance for all peoples, notably emphasizing liberty between states and the consideration of people as citizens under the law. These states should be organized according to a republican form of government.
The Republican Constitution: Foundation of Rights
According to Kant, a republican constitution is the perfect mode of government because it is the only one that guarantees the rights of liberty, equality, and citizenship for the people. These fundamental rights include:
The Right to Freedom
This is the right that every man possesses by virtue of being human. Kant considered it the only human birthright.
The Right to Equality
This right corresponds to the conditions of subjects as citizens and includes the equality of all before the law. Whoever undertakes to comply with the laws must comply too, because all are equal. Kant is against the privileges of hereditary nobility and a class society.
The Right of Citizenship (Independence)
This right corresponds to the principle of the independence of the members of society. Kant refers to members of civil society involved in legislation through the vote. The legislator is primarily a citizen.
The republican constitution is the only one that leads to the progressive achievement of peace, as citizens’ consent is required to declare war—something that citizens, acting in their own interest, would reject. This constitution adheres to the principles of liberty, political representation, and the division of powers.
Despotism: The Opposing Form of Government
The other form of government opposed to such a constitution is despotism. This is a way of governing in which there is no separation of powers and no citizen consent.