Rasszizmus és a fejlődés eszméje John C. Calhoun politikai gondolkodásában
Racism and the idea of progress in the political theory of John C. Calhoun

Summary/Abstract: In the essay I offer a discussion of Calhoun’s understanding of the interrelationship between progress, inequality and government through an analysis of his major work of political theory entitled A Disquisition on Government (1851); his attack on the abolitionist movement in the 1830s; and finally, his views on the Mexican War of 1846–48. In the Disquisition, progress is intimately linked with the development of the individual and society and the form of government that they live under. Although Calhoun denies the Lockean-Jeffersonian state of nature, and the equality of men, for him, individuals can improve their conditions by developing their moral and intellectual capacities and thus can reduce the amount of power under which they exist. Progress also serves Calhoun with a rationale to introduce his concept of the concurrent majority. Since progress results in a growing diversity of interests, it is ultimately harmful to the government of the numerical majority, which can function only in a society where there is a relative homogeneity of interests. It is the government of the concurrent majority that can exclude tensions derived from the increasing diversity of interests as well as allowing for more liberty, thus promoting progress and civilization. Calhoun’s theoretical arguments about the links between progress and inequality also inform, in part, his views about black slavery, for him, being a means of civilization and progress. Under the supervision of supposedly benevolent white masters, African blacks can develop their intellectual and moral faculties and can thus rise from a state of savagery to that of relative civilization. Slavery is also a means to handle the disadvantageous impact of progress on the American Republic: through its presumed patriarchal harmony, the South can balance the instability of the North resulting from the growing labor-capital tension. Calhoun’s racism is articulated through the conception of progress when it comes to his view of the Mexican people, who, for him, are inherently inferior, possessing a low intellectual and moral level, incapable of improvement, hence posing a threat to republican institutions if incorporated into the Union. The Mexicans do not meet the criterion of a high moral and intellectual level of development and therefore are unable to live under a republican government with the greatest degree of liberty.

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