ECONOMIC BASIS OF POLITICS

In Beard gave a series of lectures on ""the eternal quest of mankind for ways and means with which to control its social destiny for noble ends"". This is a revision of these lectures including some aspects of the political phenomena that have crossed the stage in the interim. Lecture 1 deals with the doctrine of the Philosopher under which he includes Aristotle, Machiavelli, Looks, Madison, Webster and Calhoum, all of whom believed in the principle of property..Lecture 2 portrays the development of the rule of the people instead of the rule of estates; Lecture 3 -- the doctrine of Political Equality -- Rousseau his theme. Lecture 4 on The Contradiction and the Outcome maintains that universal suffrage does not destroy economic inequalities but ignores them. In the final lecture he concludes that political man has gained over economic man, though politics must have an economic base or perish. Limited appeal.