VII. Freedom and Spirit: See the material on Hegel’s Introduction to the Philosophy of History.
VIII. Freedom and the State: From the Philosophy of Right
1. Ultimate Authority: Ultimate decision-making authority in the State rests with the crown, conceived as a constitutional monarch. The monarch symbolizes the unity of the State and this person’s individual will exhibits that unity. “If the ‘people’ is represented . . . as inwardly developed, genuinely organic, totality, then sovereignty is there as the personality of the whole, and this personality is there, in the real existence adequate to its concept, as the person of the monarch.” (PR, par. 279) For advice, the monarch appoints a supreme council and “their choice and dismissal alike rest with his unrestricted caprice.” (PR, par. 279) For advice, the monarch appoints a supreme council and “their choice and dismissal alike rest with his unrestricted caprice.” (PR, par. 283) These counselors along with the civil servants under them, are answerable for their acts and are rightfully blamed for errors and transgressions The monarch however is “above all answerability for acts of government.” (PR, par. 284). Monarchs hold power by birth and inheritance, since an elected monarchy would take the ultimate authority away from the crown.
Hegel calls for an avoidance of Despotism. Despotism arises when there is a mechanical division of powers among the parts of the state. However, “When there is an organic relation subsisting between members, not parts, then each member by fulfilling the functions of its own sphere is eo ipso maintaining the others; what each fundamentally aims at and achieves in maintaining itself is the maintenance of others.” (PR, par. 286)
2. The Executive Branch of the State: Hegel next addresses the Executive Branch of the State. The application of the laws and the everyday activities of government reside with the counselors and the trained civil servants who perform their duties as organize members of The State. They bring their dedication and expertise to the tasks of a well-operated State. Misuse of power is avoided through their answerability for their actions.
3. Legislative Branch of the State: The legislature brings to public consciousness the interests of the various classes and institutions with The State. Members hold their positions in the legislature as representative of groups rather than as individual members. Hence they function in terms of their social roles rather than claming universal rights that allow them to express their subjective whims. So the group interests of farmers, business people, physicians, etc. will be expressed in the legislature. The legislature then functions as a mediator between government and the people but it does not possess ultimate authority.
4. Practical functioning of The State: Hegel envisions the executive branch, the counselors and civil servants, as the bedrock functionaries who oversee the actual workings of The State. The monarch is expected to follow the wise advice of counselors. Hegel goes so far as to suggest that the monarch’s official activities basically are a formality. Everyone must recognize the monarch’s “self-determining and complete sovereign will” as the final decision. But “to do so is not to say that the monarch may act capriciously. As a matter of fact he is found by the concrete decisions of his counselors, and if the constitution is stable, he has often no more to do than to sign his name. But this name is important. It is the last word beyond which it is impossible to go.” (PR, add. Par. 170) He also adds, “he has only to say ‘yes’ and dot the ‘i’, because the throne should be such that the significant thing in its holder is not his particular makeup.” (PR, add. Par. 171)
Hegel may be extremely idealistic here. Govern political realities, the monarchy may be much more assertive, and the actual theoretical structure of The State clearly gives the monarch the ultimate decision-making authority.
5. Freedom and the State: Hegel views the State as the ultimate representation of individual freedom. But it is a rational freedom rather than one based upon individual whim. The individual achieves freedom through the rationally coherent form of the State that allows individuals to fully express their capacity to participate in the organize unity of The State, through their social roles. He does not envision this freedom as doing away completely with the individual pleasures or family ties. Hegel himself was a wine connoisseur and believed in strong family ties, although he was rather conservative in his attitudes toward family structure and the role of women. The mob in the French Revolution, acting in the name of universal rights of humanity and their individual whims, did not represent authentic freedom. “To hold that every single person should share in deliberating and deciding on political matters of general concern on the ground that all individual are members of the state, that its concerns are their concerns, and that it is their right and that what is done should be done wit their knowledge and volition, is tantamount to a proposal to put the democratic element without any rational form into the organism of the state, although it is only in virtue of the possession of such a form that the state is an organism at all.” (PR, par. 308)
