Ⅳ(続き)
(★訳注:中村秀吉訳『(ラッセル)自伝的回想』では、the liberal principle of nationality のところを「ヴェルサイユ条約は民族的独立の自由の原則を実現するために・・・」と,苦しい訳となっている。nationality は「国籍」と訳すのが素直な訳であるが、中村氏には、国籍は一つに決まっているという思い込みがあったために、このような訳になったのではないか?) |
Of much greater importance than these remnants of medievalism in our legislation, is the question of unjust power. It was this question which gave rise to the liberalism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They protested against the power of monarchs, and against the power of the Church in countries where there was religious persecution. They protested also against alien domination wherever there was a strong national sentiment running counter to it. On the whole, these aims were successfully achieved. Monarchs were replaced by presidents, religious persecution almost disappeared, and the Treaty of Versailles did what it could to realize the liberal principle of nationality. In spite of all this, the world did not become a paradise. Lovers of liberty found that there was less of it than there had been, not more. But the slogans and strategies which had brought victory in the past to the liberal cause were not applicable to the new situation, and the liberals found themselves deserted by the supposedly progressive advocates of new forms of tyranny. Kings and priests and capitalists are, on the whole, outmoded bogies. It is officials who represent the modern danger. Against the power of officials, single individuals can do little; only organizations can combat organizations. I think we shall have to revive Montesquieu's doctrine of the division of powers, but in new forms. Consider, for example, the conflict of labor and capital which dominated the minds of Socialists. Socialists imagined that the evils they were combating would cease if the power of capital was put into the hands of the State. This was done in Russia with the approval of organized labor. As soon as it had been done the trade unions were deprived of independent power, and labor found itself more completely enslaved than ever before. There is no monolithic solution of this problem that will leave any loop-hole for liberty. The only possible solution that a lover of liberty can support must be one in which there are rival powers, neither of them absolute, and each compelled in a crisis to pay some attention to public opinion. This means, in practice, that trade unions must preserve their independence of the executive. Undoubtedly the liberty enjoyed by a man who must belong to his union if he is to obtain employment is an inadequate and imperfect liberty; but it seems to be the best that modern industries can permit. |