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All Governments Receive Power By People's Consent, Harris Says
Friday. Oct. 11, 1963 University Daily Kansan
Errol E. Harris, professor of philosophy, said last night all governments, whether democracies, dictatorships, monarchies, or tyrances, receive their power to govern from the people.
Prof. Harris spoke in a lecture at Dyche Auditorium on "The Philosophy of War and Peace." The lecture was the fourth in a series.
"NO SINGLE MAN CAN, by virtue merely of his own physical strength, bend an entire community to his will." Prof. Harris said. "If he is to enforce his pleasure he must have a following, who accept and approve, not just his wishes and interests, but his authority."
Force alone is not sufficient to make people obey laws, Prof. Harris said. The government must command authority; it must have the respect and approval of the people.
"If fear is the only motive for conformity, the law will be broken by any and all who can break it with any reasonable prospect of escaping detection. If force alone supports it, the effectiveness of law is most precarious," he said.
Habit, custom, religion, formal education, and social influences are far more effective and of much greater importance than fear of punishment. "Law-enforcement serves in very large measure only as a subsidiary function in support of these other motives," he added.
But
t. So
PROF. HARRIS called the fear of penalties "a necessary evil and only a minimal expedient." Good governments are characterized by the use of penalties in this way, he said.
Individuals or small groups cannot
"For this reason," he added, "individuals who exercise power can never afford wholly to disregard the wishes and ideas of their subjects."
by themselves exercise political power, Prof. Harris said. "Those who submit to the power of a government always themselves, either consciously or inadvertently, help to maintain it.
PROF. HARRIS said justification for the exercise of power by a government depend on its policies toward the common will and conscience of the people.
"Evidence in favor of my thesis is the fact that extremist politicians, as soon as they become candidates for national election, moderate their views," he said.
Prof. Harris will discuss sovereignty in international law at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 17, in Dyche Auditorium.
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