Rule of man

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Rule of man[a] (where "man" is used in a genderless manner[6]) is a type of personal rule in an unaccountable rebounded[clarification needed] society where rules change from ruler to ruler. It is a society in which one person, regime, or a group of persons, rules arbitrarily.[6][7] While rule of man can be explained as the absence of rule of law, this theoretical understanding results in a paradox. Realism dictates that man and law do not stand apart and that the rules of each are not opposites. Rather law depends deeply on a state composed of men.[8][9]

On the other hand, as a positive concept, the rule of man, "a man capable of ruling better than the best laws", was championed in ancient Greek philosophy and thinking as early as Plato.[10] The debate between rule of man versus rule of law extends to Plato's student Aristotle, and to Confucius and the Legalists in Chinese philosophy.[11][12]

  1. ^ Jenco 2010, p. 1.
  2. ^ Chenguang 2010, p. 11.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :Shah was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cotton, James (1979). "James Harrington as Aristotelian". Political Theory. 7 (3): 374. doi:10.1177/009059177900700305. ISSN 0090-5917. JSTOR 190946. S2CID 145229391 – via JSTOR.
  5. ^ Chew, Pat K (2005). "The Rule of Law: China's Skepticism and the Rule of People" (PDF). Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution. 20 (1): 45–46, 48–49 – via core.ac.uk. ...what the West has sometimes labeled as a rule of man but is more accurately translated as the rule of people from the Chinese word renzhi
  6. ^ a b Gowder 2018, p. 336. (...henceforth use the traditional term "the rule of men" to contrast "the rule of law," but the reader is asked to interpret "men" in a non-gendered fashion.) [...] "I will say that we have "the rule of men" or "personal rule" when those who wield the power of the state are not obliged to give reasons to those over whom that power is being wielded—from the standpoint of the ruled, the rulers may simply act on their brute desires."
  7. ^ Gowder 2018, p. 338.
  8. ^ Ocko & Gilmartin 2009, p. 55. ...the rule of law and the rule of man as oppositional yet paradoxically intertwined notions...
  9. ^ Ocko & Gilmartin 2009, p. 59, 70
  10. ^ Bovero 2018, 8.
  11. ^ Waldron, Jeremy (2020), "The Rule of Law", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2021-09-20
  12. ^ Chang 2015, p. vii.


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