Political Science Essay Sample: Hume and Fielding on Liberty

Hume suggests that the significance of freedom is to communicate any content to the public. The paper intends to assess the measures that governments of different types of leadership put in place in relation to liberty. Hume describes the concept of classical republicanism and review of the concept of a free press in the ancient days. The paper attempts to relate extreme freedom and the liberty that exists in other two contexts, republican, monarchical and mixture of the two extremes. Hume criticizes the idea of full liberty in republican contexts such as in Britain. He challenges the idea of freedom as being exclusive and common to all citizens of a certain republican country.

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The freedom of speech is essential to the citizens of any nation or state in the world. The governments and authorities of the States need to allow its people to exercise their freedom of communication and expression. However, there are different aspects that associate with the freedom of the press, both the advantages and the negative consequences. Research suggests that if governments restrict the operations and limit the extent of the freedom of the press, the authority shall be mistaking the interest of the people and the nation at large. On the other hand, granting the media the freedom might at times have consequences. The media might choose not to balance their content that they relay to the public and instead focus on magnifying the undoing of the government. The press focussing on criticising the authority on a regular basis might be a recipe for chaos due to bias in their reporting. Governments act in various ways toward liberty of the press depending on their type of administration; monarchical or republican.

However, most governments are neither fully monarchical nor fully republican and as such, exercise their authority with partially mixing the two forms of governance. Studies reveal that involving a high level of monarchy and a little liberty to the press operations makes the administration intolerable and becomes difficult for the public to withstand and cooperate with that type of rule. In France for instance, the rule of law, religion, and custom tends to agree and as such, the people have the freedom to communicate and act as they dee, suitable. In Holland, which has a purely republican form of governance, the courts are at liberty to decide without favor towards the government. Despite the lack of imminent powers to the magistrates, the people restrain from certain actions and as such, offer a high degree of respect to the government. Comparing both cases, an extreme monarchy with limitations on the liberty of the media can promote peace. Extreme republican authority, which gives the people the free will of expression, also experiences great respect from its people.

The blending of the two administration tactics may either lead to unrest or tolerance within the nation. The Roman emperor and the English government, for instance, had its people intolerant to either total slavery or full freedom. In the Roman emperor, the authority was more deposit than liberal. The officials were unkind and cruel to their subjects. The mistreatment was high on the people they perceived to be developing superiority at a higher level than their own members. The subjects developed impatience due to jealousy of the dominant family. England was more liberal and blended with a little monarchy. The English authority would, however, maintain its law through monitoring and regulating the law enforcement authorities such as the magistrates. The magistrates had minimal powers to ensure control of its citizens through the use of rigid laws The Roman emperor with slavery and tyranny compares to the English administration which despite more liberty than monarchy, was deceitful. The above cases studies of England depicts the difficulties in establishing remedies to uncontrolled freedom of the press. The liberty of the press been present in the English authority, but the ministers had several measures of caution for their own preservation.

Freedom, in addition to the social aspect, also contained political concept which associates with citizenship and participation in a community that governs itself. Liberty has a relationship with political activities that lead to the establishment of the constitution. Freedom lacks in cases where institutional regulation or social checks are missing. Berlin proposes two concepts of liberty. The two concepts of liberty in politics are both the positive effects of liberty and the negative effects of political freedom.

Positive freedom relates to citizens exercising self-direction, fulfillment and control which involve politics as the main driver. Positive liberty also relates to the right and rational cause of human behaviors if the characters are autonomous. The actions of the citizens imply positive freedom if they originate from their rational ability and not relative different sources such as passion or manipulation from different individuals. Negative freedom associates itself with no interference for human conduct. The extent of the liberty by individuals depends on the period of time that individuals' actions can progress without intervention by other citizens or authority. Negative liberty depends on a personal level of understanding of their relationship with the community or the nation.

David Humes, The History of England as an example describe the 1694 statute and the expiry of the regulation which permitted only the licensed individuals to print. The statute expired at the discomfort of the king of England and his ministers. The authority perceives as such that the freedom of expression and the press, in general, could jeopardize their salutary privileges and trust from the people when they improve their understanding of their rights.

In 1741, Humes work in the Liberty of the Press, there was the need to maintain the dignity of the press and avoid any ill effects such as the cases of Athens and Tribunals of Rome where an individual could read a book with mob ready to burn him. Hume proposes that there should be the free will to read under any private circumstances without interference and fear. The judge Alexander Addison in 1799 hearing also made a statement on the freedom of the press. The judge described the liberty of the press as a process in which any individual could print or write any content without the permission of another man. He further gave exceptions for punishment as a case where an individual could exercise the freedom of printing and publishing while causing harm to the public.

Liberty of the Press also extends to religion and scientific research publications. The works by Hume, Of Liberty Of the Press, as an example, discusses the learning of Wit and the Genius of the State in relation to freedom. Letter to the Inhabitants of Quebec, in 1774 explains the relevance of liberty of the press as a tool to promote truth, morality, science, and arts. The perception on the press was evident in 1799 when Justice Iredell preceded over the jury. He stated that the freedom had changed the backwardness of the citizens into civilized individuals and expanded the pleasure of privacy in the lives of its citizens.

According to Joseph, a charity was lacking in England during the eighteen century. There are several illustrations that portray the absence of charity during the ancient days. For instance, Mrs. Tow-wouse prevents the entry of Joseph in their establishments. The denial of the permit to enter is a measure to avoid the poor people, which Joseph was the type, from spoiling their reputation. The story, however, proposes relevant solutions to poverty by creating a benevolent program. There are suggestions of possible solutions, benevolent from patriarch institutions and other nations may employ a larger institutional structure for poor relief. However, there are several factors that can make the benevolent program ineffective. Several individuals, for instance, Lady Bobby and Pounce in the essay refuses to engage in charity programs to help the needy. Establishing relief projects that a state authority runs may improve the benevolent efforts in ensuring poor relief.

In England, the ministers enacted laws to regulate relief projects. These laws, however, promoted the discrimination of the poor due to the rise in costs of operating the charity programs. Fielding proposes two methods that can help manage the poor and monitor them. He proposes country house which is larger than the parochial institution with a capacity of over 5000 people. These institutions aim at holding the jobless individuals and provide easy access by the potential employers. He argues that the cause of poverty is due to the unemployment rate that results from the failure of the state to gather the unemployed. Individuals whose jobs contracts are over return to the jobless pool on certain dates to wait for other opportunities. This plan by Fielding is discriminative as no individual would earn a job opportunity if he lacked membership permit of the parish responsible for hiring. The identity of any candidate was to be with the relevant authority.

Research work by Scott also discusses the reinforcement of the vagrancy law. The purpose of the law was to ensure that parishes acted as the units of authority for management of poverty and limitations of movements. A child could earn the entitlement to relief if the parents settled on the pauper's scheme and became unable to pay tenant fee of ten pounds. The prohibition of movement by individuals with no employment, in turn, restricted knight errant of romance and the wandering minstrel and his song. Andrews, for instance, finds himself in problems with the authority when he leaves his parish. Andrew loses his employment and his livery. The experience of Andrew implies bad conditions of poor laws and poor management.

The book tends to depict that an individual's thought beyond certain limit could cause problems. The limit, according to the law on poverty management was within the confinement of a certain parish settlement. The gathering of poor people in the society also manifests itself in the essay concerning High People and Low People. The dissertation about Joseph Andrews distinguishes the rich as fashionable individuals while referring to the poor people as individuals who lack fashion. The disparity between the rich and the poor through various means was commonly through geographic segregation. In Enquiry, Fielding further shows how divisions existed between the rich and the poor people in terms of access to social amenities and facilities. Inquiry depicts the territorial segregation; "let them (the great) have their play, operas their assemblies their bath and Cheltenham". There was a perception of the great rich being in ownership of all the hoes Fairs and Revels.

Social research by Fielding reveals that the church was in ancient times of England, the key administration Fielding also describes the parish as the point of meeting for intimate personal relations and civil leadership. Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones are more active than Amelia despite both having similar aspects of respect for monetary strength and concerns for the legal wellbeing of the society. In the story, Fielding describes the importance of monetary ability in his works. Adams intends to generate income from the sermons he delivers. Fielding exposes and ridicules Shamela and makes an introduction of Joseph Andrews and the pinnacle with Tom Jones.

Julian also appears in the story as a beggar. Julian was born in a poor family. The book states that the family of Jane survived on begging. The author states that the family procured their livelihood through begging.