2023-09-01 08:00:10
How to ensure the integrity of those who govern? The question has been at the heart of political thought since antiquity. There are, according to Eric Buge, former Deputy Secretary General of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life, two models: one is based on the integrity of individuals, the other on that of institutions. The first consists “to arouse virtue in their person, in particular through education or the creation of an adequate political culture”. It is the way of Plato, that of Roman Antiquity, of the humanists of the Renaissance or of the Jacobins. In Rome, virtue was the foundation of the ability to exercise power. The censors manage the register of persons admitted to the Senate; they inspect their public life, but also their private life: do they behave well with their family, with their slaves? Do they manage their property well?
Also read the survey: Article reserved for our subscribers The duty to set an example, a political requirement with vague outlines
Even under absolute monarchy, a form of duty to set an example exists. The monarchs of the Ancien Régime must scrupulously follow the praxis religious. “Exemplarity is thought of in the light of Christian virtues: is the sovereign charitable, is he good, pious, sincere? », deciphers the historian specializing in modern Catholicism Olivier Christin. The legitimacy of the monarch coming to him from God, he owes no account to the people. The idea of corruption “is completely anachronistic with monarchs”, says the specialist. As for manners, “The sexual tolerance was amazing. Louis XIV and Louis XV were neurotic sexual consumers”without it earning them any real moral reprobation.
The conception of exemplarity changes a lot in modern times, Machiavelli proposing a secularized thought. “He defends the idea that setting an example is not necessarily necessary. What matters is to look exemplary, whatever your conduct., explains the philosopher Laurence Devillairs. The Prince is virtuous in the sense that he does what is useful, “including, at times, embracing evil. The goal is always to retain power for the good of the people.
With Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, the theories of the social contract create obligations for the sovereign, whose authority no longer emanates from God. Montesquieu develops the link between democracy and virtue, proposing a political analysis, and not a moral one, of corruption. “Montesquieu says that one can no longer rely on individual virtue or on Christian virtue, explains Enlightenment philosopher Céline Spector. What you have to think about then is the balance of powers and counter-powers, so that ambitions respond to each other. »
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