Self-study
P1
Can a sovereign have unlimited legal power. ██ █ █████████ ████ ████ █████████ █████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ███ ███ █████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████ █████ ██████ ███████ █████████████ ███ ███████ ████████████ ████ ███████████ █████████ ██ █████████████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████████████
Question ·
Can a sovereign be omnipotent?
If so, then the sovereign has the power to limit its own power which means it no longer has unlimited power. That's the paradox of omnipotence.
P2
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OPA ·
Sovereign omnipotence can be a source of difficulty for soverigns
E.g., the English and French monarchies experienced this
P3
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OPA ·
It can be good for sovereigns to have their power be limited
E.g., having absolute power means you can refuse to honor debts which means that you can't get a loan.
P4
OPA Example ·
French and English's unlimited power hurt them
These sovereigns failed to pay debt and expropriated property. Consequently, creditors started demanding high interest rates to capture risk of default.
P5
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OPA Solution / Conclusion ·
The Parliament's limit of the Crown's power resolved the paradox
The Parliament was able to credibly commit the Crown to honor is debts. Consequently, the Crown was able to borrow at a much lower rate.
P6
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OPA legacy ·
Constitutional limits to powers as a benefit is now the conventional view
Author’s Critique ·
Constitutions can fail to limit power
Author’s Argument ·
Did not solve the problem; merely shifted it
The paradox of omnipotence still exists. All the constitution does is to take omnipotence away from the Crown and give it to itself, the Parliament.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
27.
Which one of the following ██████ █████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ███ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████████
a
After 1688, commercial █████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████████ ███████
If anything, the author and North and Weingast might agree about this. They both recognize that monarchs would borrow money more easily from creditors after power was placed in Parliament.
b
The paradox of ███████████ ██ ██ ██████ █ █████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ███████████
We don’t know whether North and Weingast think the problem has been eliminated for “any actual government.” There might be some other government in the world that has this problem. So we don’t know that this is a point of disagreement between the author and North and Weingast.
c
In England, the █████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ████████ █████ █████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ████ ███████
If anything, the author and North and Weingast might agree about this. They both recognize that monarchs would borrow money more easily from creditors after power was placed in Parliament.
d
In the seventeenth ████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████████ ███ █ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ █████████ ████████████
This is a point of agreement between the author and North and Weingast.
e
The constitutional settlement ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ████████████
North and Weingast would agree with (E). We know they argue that the constitutional settlement stopped the monarchs’ conduct in backing out of loans, and we also know that the conventional view represented by North and Weingast is that constitutional arrangements benefit sovereigns by limiting their power. But the