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- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
In "The Commonwealth of Oceana," James Harrington presents a thought-provoking exploration of political theory, proposing a model for an ideal republic that reflects the societal architecture of a utopian Oceana. Written in the 17th century, this work intertwines engaging political dialogues with a clear, rhetorical style that seeks to elicit both contemplation and action from its readers. Harrington's text emerges during a tumultuous time in English history'—marked by civil war and the quest for governmental reform'—positioning itself as a heartfelt critique of monarchical structures and an earnest call for a more equitable distribution of power. James Harrington, a political theorist and a keen observer of his contemporary society, draws on the historical precedents of classical authors like Plato and Aristotle, while simultaneously engaging with the problems of his own time. His experiences in Parliament and his advocacy for land distribution shaped his vision of a balanced society where property ownership underpins political stability. Harrington's idealism is tinged with a realism that forecasts the challenges of transforming visions into practice. "The Commonwealth of Oceana" is an essential read for anyone interested in the intersections of political philosophy and practical governance. Its insights remain relevant today, urging readers to ponder the mechanisms of power and the ideals of civic responsibility, thus serving as a timeless treatise on the pursuit of a just society. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes. - The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists. - A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing. - A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings. - Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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The Commonwealth of Oceana
Table of Contents
Introduction
At the heart of The Commonwealth of Oceana lies the claim that lasting liberty depends less on the character of individual rulers than on a constitutional design that distributes and balances power in line with the underlying balance of property in society.
James Harrington’s work, published in 1656 during the English Interregnum, is a utopian work of political philosophy that imagines a reformed commonwealth called Oceana, a transparent stand‑in for England. Situated amid the constitutional experiments of the Protectorate, the book proposes a republican framework in place of monarchical sovereignty. It belongs to the tradition of civic humanism and institutional design, using a fictional setting to illuminate real controversies of the mid‑seventeenth century. Readers encounter a blueprint for governance rather than a narrative plot, crafted to address the urgent question of how to secure a stable, free commonwealth after civil conflict.
Harrington’s premise is both simple and audacious: if political power inevitably follows property, then a durable republic requires institutions that reflect and moderate that fact. Oceana sets out the architecture of such a polity, offering a program for legislatures, magistracies, elections, and military organization. The reading experience alternates between abstract theory and concrete constitutional detail, composed in a stately, rhetorical style enriched by classical allusion. Though framed as a political romance, its emphasis is practical and prescriptive. The voice is didactic yet visionary, inviting readers to imagine how procedures—rather than personalities—can cultivate civic virtue, lawful order, and collective prudence.
Key themes recur with deliberate regularity. Harrington argues for a mixed and balanced government in which deliberation and decision are separated to prevent faction from overrunning the state. He champions rotation in office and the secret ballot to diffuse power and inhibit corruption. An agrarian settlement—aimed at preventing extreme concentrations of property—appears as a constitutional precondition for republican stability. Civic education and service, including a citizen‑based militia under civil control, are presented as the habits that sustain liberty. Throughout, the book asks how laws and institutions can channel private interests into public good without relying on exceptional leaders or transient zeal.
Oceana is deeply engaged with classical and Renaissance precedents. Harrington converses with Roman and Greek examples and draws lessons from contemporary republics, notably those admired for their orderly procedures and stable senates. He adapts insights associated with Machiavellian republicanism—esteem for mixed constitutions, the value of conflict when institutionally contained, and the primacy of civic orders—while responding to the English experience of civil wars, contested sovereignty, and military domination. The treatise addresses problems that haunted the 1650s: how to avoid the perils of oligarchy, how to subject force to law, and how to make liberty more than a momentary settlement.
For today’s readers, the book’s questions remain strikingly current. It probes the link between economic inequality and political capture, suggesting that constitutional design must confront the social foundations of power. It tests the limits of elections by emphasizing secrecy of voting, rotation, and carefully staged deliberation. It treats civil control of armed force as a constitutional problem, not merely an ethical one. And it invites reflection on institutional transparency, local participation, and the cultivation of civic virtue. Whether one agrees with its specific prescriptions, Oceana clarifies the stakes of designing durable frameworks that can withstand faction, ambition, and change.
Approached as both thought experiment and manual, The Commonwealth of Oceana rewards patient reading. Its ornate cadence and system‑building ambition offer a map of republicanism that is at once theoretical, historical, and practical. Harrington’s careful differentiation of roles, his insistence on procedures over personalities, and his attention to the distribution of property furnish a lens through which to evaluate any constitutional order. Without foreclosing debate, the book equips readers to ask pointed questions about freedom, security, and equality. As an enduring landmark of political thought, it invites not only admiration but also rigorous, contemporary application.
Synopsis
Harrington’s The Commonwealth of Oceana sets out a comprehensive design for a stable republic in the aftermath of England’s civil conflicts. Presented as a model commonwealth named Oceana, the book aims to show how durable liberty can be founded on law, balanced property, and carefully ordered institutions rather than force or personal rule. Framing his argument with classical and contemporary examples, Harrington announces a methodical approach: establishing first principles, deriving constitutional orders, and detailing administrative practices. He positions the work as a practical blueprint, proceeding from foundational causes to operative structures, and promises that correct arrangement will produce peace, security, and lasting public freedom.
At the core is the doctrine of the balance of property, especially land, which Harrington treats as the efficient cause of every form of government. Where wealth is concentrated in few hands, oligarchy or monarchy arises; where it is widely distributed, a popular commonwealth becomes possible. He surveys precedents in Israel, Sparta, Rome, and Venice to illustrate how ownership patterns shape councils, assemblies, and armies. From this premise, he concludes that political stability depends less on names and forms than on the underlying possession of estates, and that constitutional design must maintain an equilibrium between wealth and authority to prevent corruption and faction.
To secure the balance, Harrington introduces an agrarian law that limits the accumulation of land and prevents the growth of overmighty households. By regulating inheritance, sales, and entails, the law aims to keep estates within a set proportion, discourage perpetual concentrations, and ensure a broad class of proprietors. He presents these measures as preventive rather than confiscatory, operating prospectively and uniformly. The agrarian settlement undergirds all other institutions, because it fixes the social foundation from which councils are elected and militias are formed. With property distributed, he argues, liberty can be maintained without continual recourse to force or extraordinary powers.
From these preliminaries, Harrington builds a constitutional frame that separates proposing, resolving, and executing. A senate composed of the more experienced citizens deliberates and frames laws and policy. A larger popular assembly, representing the body of the people, renders a simple yes or no to the senate’s proposals without engaging in debate, thereby keeping deliberation and decision distinct. Magistrates execute the determinations and administer routine government. This separation is designed to prevent confusion of powers, reduce sudden passions, and stabilize procedure. The senate provides wisdom, the people provide sovereignty, and the magistracy provides dispatch, each restrained by forms that channel ambition and interest.
Elections and turnover are arranged to sustain this balance. Harrington adopts the Venetian secret ballot to insulate choice from intimidation and intrigue, using devices and counters to regularize selection. Offices are filled through a two-step process: citizens first choose electors, who then nominate and ballot for magistrates and councillors, with clear oaths and records. Rotation is constant; a portion of each council goes out at fixed intervals, preventing entrenchment while preserving experience. Lot may be used to compose certain juries or panels, but suffrage decides principal offices. The mechanism produces continuous circulation of men and measures without abrupt ruptures or vacancies.
The model is constructed from the parish upward, in concentric orbs that integrate local and national governance. Parishes choose their deputies, who assemble in larger divisions such as hundreds and tribes, culminating in national councils. Through these staged elections, citizens are regularly mustered, registered, and trained in public business. A prerogative tribe, a large popular body, serves as the ultimate resolver of laws proposed by the senate. Time is carefully ordered by stated days for nominations, ballots, returns, and reviews, so that business proceeds in an even rhythm. Local courts and commissions handle ordinary matters, referring major questions to the central assemblies.
Executive administration is entrusted to a council of state and subordinate boards with defined jurisdictions in war, peace, trade, and law. Chief magistrates preside and coordinate, while clerks and commissioners manage records and execution. The judiciary is organized through graded courts and juries, with appeals and regular circuits to ensure uniform justice. Censors, modeled on Roman precedent, oversee the rolls, supervise the ballot, and maintain public discipline by formal admonition rather than arbitrary punishment. Financial officers keep transparent accounts subject to routine audits. Throughout, tenure is limited and offices are frequently renewed, embedding accountability and preventing lasting combinations or dependencies.
Public defense rests on a citizen militia rather than a standing army. All qualified men are enrolled, trained, and periodically mustered, serving by turns so that military virtue is diffused and civil power remains paramount. Finance is provided by predictable revenues, including customs and excise, with assessments proportioned to ability and appropriated by law. In religion, Harrington allows a maintained national ministry while granting qualified liberty of conscience to peaceable dissenters, to avoid faction while preserving civil unity. For colonies and provinces, he outlines subordinate commonwealths and councils that extend trade and protection without creating instruments for domestic domination.
In closing, Harrington argues that once the agrarian foundation is laid and the orders are enacted, the commonwealth will be self-sustaining. The balance of property will anchor the balance of power; the separation of proposing and resolving will moderate counsels; and rotation with ballot will continually renew authority. The design aims at a republic that is orderly, frugal, and secure, in which liberty is preserved by settled procedure rather than by extraordinary men. Oceana is thus presented as a practical pattern: a method to convert social conditions into a stable constitution, capable of enduring changes of persons without altering the frame.
Historical Context
James Harrington wrote The Commonwealth of Oceana in London during the English Interregnum, publishing it in 1656 under Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate. Although set in the fictional republic of “Oceana,” its geography and institutions transparently mirror mid-seventeenth-century England and the British Isles. The work emerges from a decade of civil war, regicide (1649), and rapid constitutional experimentation in Westminster. Harrington, a gentleman with court connections and continental experience, absorbed lessons from English politics and from republican precedents in Venice and ancient Rome. The text’s setting is thus a hybrid: England’s social and property structure, commercial and maritime ambitions, and a capital city consumed by debate over sovereignty, standing armies, religious pluralism, and the foundations of political legitimacy.
The English Civil Wars (1642–1651) shattered the Stuart monarchy and reordered English political life. After the 1642 Edgehill stalemate, Parliament’s New Model Army—organized 1645 under Sir Thomas Fairfax with Oliver Cromwell’s Ironsides—won decisive victories, notably Naseby (June 1645). Renewed conflict in 1648 prompted Pride’s Purge of the House of Commons (December 1648), creating the Rump Parliament that tried Charles I before a High Court of Justice. The king’s execution on 30 January 1649 and the abolition of the monarchy and House of Lords inaugurated the Commonwealth. Military campaigns in Ireland (1649–1653) and Scotland (Dunbar 1650; Worcester 1651) extended parliamentary control. The wars exposed the volatility of power rooted in arms rather than settled law, and the fragmentation of authority among Parliament, Army officers, and local interests. Harrington’s Oceana converts that violent sequence into an institutional lesson: he translates the struggle between king, parliament, and army into a durable balance among Senate (the few), popular assembly (the many), and magistracy. The secret ballot, rotation of offices, and a militia-based defense are offered as constitutional mechanisms to prevent a return to factional coups. By embedding military authority in civic structures and dispersing it through rotation, Harrington reimagines postwar England as a law-governed republic where property—not the sword—anchors political power.
The Commonwealth (1649–1653) and Protectorate (1653–1659) formed an era of accelerated constitutional trial. The Rump Parliament governed through a Council of State but proved narrow and slow to reform. In July–December 1653, the Nominated or Barebone’s Parliament attempted godly rule before dissolving. The Instrument of Government (December 1653) created a written constitution, naming Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector with a Council and triennial parliaments; later, the Humble Petition and Advice (1657) refined this framework. Regional Major-Generals (1655–1657) signaled a tilt toward military administration. Oceana responds by proposing codified structures—bicameral legislation, fixed terms, rotation by ballot—designed to correct the perceived instability and concentration of power under these experiments.
Radical political agitation among soldiers and citizens shaped the decade. The Levellers, led by John Lilburne, Richard Overton, and William Walwyn, advanced the Agreement of the People (1647–1649), demanding broader suffrage, equality before law, and religious toleration. At the Putney Debates (October–November 1647) in St Mary’s Church, Putney, Army Agitators pressed for near-universal male franchise, while Grandees like Cromwell and Henry Ireton defended property-based voting. Mutinies at Corkbush Field (1647) and Burford (1649) followed suppression. Harrington absorbs this ferment yet diverges: Oceana ties political power to independent property, not mere personhood, insisting that a stable republic rests on a wide freeholder base; he tempers radicalism with the secret ballot and rotation to secure consent without inviting demagoguery.
Transformations in property and political economy were decisive. The sale of Crown and episcopal lands after 1649 redistributed estates to creditors, soldiers, and speculators; enclosure had long consolidated gentry holdings; commercial expansion brought new wealth to London merchants. Harrington makes these realities constitutional: in Oceana he proposes an “agrarian law” capping landed revenue at roughly £2,000 per annum for any citizen, preventing oligarchic accumulation that could dominate the state. He links the franchise to freehold property, seeking a broad yeomanry to stabilize governance. The work also reflects contemporary colonial and Irish confiscations (notably under the 1652 Act of Settlement), which revealed how control of land structured sovereignty. For Harrington, command over property determines the balance of political forces.
England’s maritime turn and conflict with the Dutch Republic supplied another context. The Navigation Act (October 1651) targeted Dutch carrying trade, precipitating the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–1654). Admiral Robert Blake and the reformed Commonwealth Navy fought major battles—Dungeness (1652), Portland (1653), the Gabbard (1653), and Scheveningen (1653)—ending with the Treaty of Westminster (1654). These wars crystallized the link between commerce, sea power, and republican statecraft. Oceana mirrors this by entwining civic virtue with naval strength, proposing institutionalized councils and rotating offices to manage fleets and trade. Harrington’s republic is a maritime commonwealth, projecting security and prosperity through disciplined institutions rather than dynastic ambition.
Classical and European republican precedents offered concrete historical models. Venice’s long-lived republic, consolidated after the Serrata of 1297, used complex balloting and the Council of Ten to balance aristocratic rule with institutional stability; secret ballots and rotation were tools against faction. Ancient Rome’s mixed constitution, as described by Polybius, and its agrarian conflicts—from the Licinian-Sextian rogations (367 BCE) to the Gracchan reforms (133–121 BCE)—illustrated how land concentration destabilized republican orders. Oceana appropriates these episodes: Harrington’s ballot, rotation, senate-people balance, and agrarian limit translate Venetian and Roman lessons into English conditions. He treats them not as abstractions but as tested mechanisms to restrain oligarchy and secure civic participation.
The book functions as a pointed critique of mid-seventeenth-century England’s power arrangements. It indicts the concentration of wealth among great landlords, the corruption and instability of parliaments dependent on patronage, and the coercive dominance of a standing army. By tying suffrage and magistracy to widely distributed property and embedding office-holding in rotation and secret ballot, Harrington attacks class monopolies and electoral intimidation. His militia model rebukes military rule while acknowledging security needs; his bicameralism curbs both demagoguery and aristocratic capture. Oceana thus exposes the era’s core problems—unequal property, opaque decision-making, confessional strife—and offers an institutional remedy aimed at durable liberty grounded in a broad, lawful commonwealth.
