1. Now, far be it from I to allow any influence of foreign law into United States jurisprudence
but, I must admit to seeing the efficacy of this one aspect of Eastern philosophy as it pertains to our system: The Mandate of Heaven. Mandate of Heaven - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2. The Mandate of Heaven is a concept from Chinese political philosophy which is sometimes compared to the European notion of the Divine Right of Kings. It is, in actuality, nothing like the Divine Right of Kings except insofar as it is an ethical principle pertaining to notions of just rulership.
3. The Mandate of Heaven basically says this: If you come to power and hold it and keep everything more or less orderly and pleasant for everyone, than you must be blessed by Heaven, and therefore you have the right to rule and nobody should challenge you. However, if you stink at holding and using that power, and things go to hell and theres starvation and lawlessness and children disrespecting their parents and dogs and cats living together and whatnot, then obviously you are a worthless and inferior ruler, and Heaven no longer endorses you, then people have a right to throw you out and put somebody in office who can do the job right.
4. The Mandate of Heaven is a well-accepted and popular idea among the people of China, as it argues for the removal of incompetent or despotic rulers, and provided an incentive for rulers to rule well and justly. The concept is often invoked by philosophers and scholars in ancient China as a way to curtail the abuse of power by the ruler, in a system that otherwise offered no other check to this power. The Mandate of Heaven had no time limitations, instead depending on the just and able performance of the ruler. In the past, times of poverty and economic disasters were taken as signs that heaven considered the incumbent ruler unjust and thus in need of replacement.
So....how long before the 'The Mandate of Heaven' supplants the electoral college?
2. The Mandate of Heaven is a concept from Chinese political philosophy which is sometimes compared to the European notion of the Divine Right of Kings. It is, in actuality, nothing like the Divine Right of Kings except insofar as it is an ethical principle pertaining to notions of just rulership.
3. The Mandate of Heaven basically says this: If you come to power and hold it and keep everything more or less orderly and pleasant for everyone, than you must be blessed by Heaven, and therefore you have the right to rule and nobody should challenge you. However, if you stink at holding and using that power, and things go to hell and theres starvation and lawlessness and children disrespecting their parents and dogs and cats living together and whatnot, then obviously you are a worthless and inferior ruler, and Heaven no longer endorses you, then people have a right to throw you out and put somebody in office who can do the job right.
4. The Mandate of Heaven is a well-accepted and popular idea among the people of China, as it argues for the removal of incompetent or despotic rulers, and provided an incentive for rulers to rule well and justly. The concept is often invoked by philosophers and scholars in ancient China as a way to curtail the abuse of power by the ruler, in a system that otherwise offered no other check to this power. The Mandate of Heaven had no time limitations, instead depending on the just and able performance of the ruler. In the past, times of poverty and economic disasters were taken as signs that heaven considered the incumbent ruler unjust and thus in need of replacement.
So....how long before the 'The Mandate of Heaven' supplants the electoral college?
