Re: [OPE-L] Marx on Harrington (fwd)

From: Paul Zarembka (zarembka@BUFFALO.EDU)
Date: Wed Mar 08 2006 - 13:23:12 EST


Anybody know if Marx did anything on the 17th century J. Harrington?  Paul

P.S. "1611?77, English political writer. His Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) 
pictured a utopian society in which political authority rested entirely 
with the landed gentry. Harrington advocated definite agrarian reforms, 
however, in order to achieve a greater equality of power. He sought to 
abolish primogeniture and to limit the amount of land an individual could 
hold. He also advocated division of the powers of government, a written 
constitution, and the principle of rotation in office. Penn’s government in 
Pennsylvania is said to owe much to the Oceana. Harrington’s ideas can be 
seen in the doctrines of the American Revolution and the French 
Revolution." <http://www.bartleby.com/65/ha/Harringt.html>

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

I cannot believe that Marx was not aware of what Harrington did, just
about every political writer was, and, moreover, there are so many
points in common between the two --- the principal one being
Harrington's insistence on the economic foundation of political systems....


***********************************************************************
RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY,  Paul Zarembka, editor, Elsevier Science
******************** http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka


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