3.3.- Contents 1. The Organisation of Freedom: Conflict and

3.3.- Contents
1. The Organisation of Freedom: Conflict and Cooperation
From Freedom to Freedoms
In the social organisation of human interaction, the Law plays an important role.
When Law is studied it is always divided into two parts, on one hand “private law”, which
groups the subjects related to citizens' private lives as well as family relationships, property,
agreements and the acquisition of citizenship. On the other hand, “public law” groups
subjects related to citizens' public life, such as participation in public activities, the election of
individuals to public office, the management of public assets and in general, the regulation of
common activities. These two parts of the Law are only understood when there is a general
reflection about the meaning of laws and justice, that is to say, when there is an ethical
reflection that provides arguments on issuing the best laws, organising them in the best way
within the different codes and applying them most justly. Within this overall reflection about
general interests, the common good or common standards, there is a central idea around
which all the others revolve: the harmonising of individual freedom with the freedom of other
individuals. Therefore, learning about citizenship can be defined as learning about
everybody’s freedom, not only that of one individual but of a group of individuals. Without
this harmonising of freedoms there are only individuals and no citizens.
On top of this reflection on the freedom of all people, the Law distinguishes between
"freedom" in general and "freedoms". And it deals with "public freedoms" when analysing,
regulating and encouraging the public dimension of personal freedom. For example, the first
things that dictatorships and tyrannies do is annul the most basic "public freedoms", such as
freedom of conscience, thought, freedom of speech, the right to protest, and freedom of
association and participation. Exercising citizenship is to promote and defend these public
liberties, within the double meaning of the liberties of all people and the liberties of all
dimensions of human life.
Regulating Conflict and Social Cooperation
The interaction of liberties is carried out through a double movement, on the one
hand through disintegration, separation and confrontation, what we might call conflict
dynamics. On the other hand, through the movement of integration, unification and
cooperation, we have what we might call cooperation dynamics. Both movements have
positive and negative aspects. The Law adopts these dynamics as regular so that higher
standards of liberty, justice, equality and pluralism might be socially applied. The following
table shows us this double possibility:
Conflict
dynamics
Cooperation
dynamics
Positive aspects
- Outrage and rebellion in the face of
unjust situations.
- Individuality and critical capacities of
citizens.
- Social change and dynamism.
- Coordination of individual actions.
- Integration of differences into
common projects.
- Achieving of common purposes and
aims.
Negative aspects
-Disorder and breaking of rules,
regulations and laws.
- Sacrifice and heroic behaviour not
considered by laws.
- Personal suffering and pain caused by
fighting and confrontation.
- Risk of the levelling out of
responsibilities.
- Complacency with mistakes.
- Projects are always carried out in
groups.
2. Authority, Legality and Legitimacy
From Power to Powers
Learning about citizenship does not only consist of learning about how political power
functions. Although it is necessary for us to analyse the close relationships between political
power and citizenship, it is important that we extend the reflection on citizenship to other
spheres of power. In this way, citizenship is not only exercised in the face of political power
but also in the face of any despotic, tyrannical or abusive show of power. It is important to
extend the reflection on power to other fields of daily life, such as the financial, professional,
civil, family or educational aspects, where we often confuse power with other qualities that
are necessary for the organisation of these activities. This way, we can at least distinguish
the following types of powers:
POWER-COERCION (force); capacity to make someone do something by force.
POWER-CONTROL (power); capacity to convince without forcing someone's will.
POWER-AUTHORITY (exemplary); capacity to convince by guiding someone's will
through example.
POWER-LEGALITY (democracy); capacity to convince and make someone comply
with the laws, harmonising the liberty of all by seeking the common good.
From Authoritarianism to Authority
In closed societies, the greatest risk in terms of the use of power in all its guises is
authoritarianism, that is to say, to abuse the authority that one has. Sometimes, in sports
teams the behaviour of captains or coaches is authoritarian, they abuse the power they are
given or the trust deposited in them in order to promote their own interests instead of
general or common interests.
Active citizenship is one of the best ways of ending any sort of authoritarian
behaviour because it promotes the capacity to criticise, participation and joint responsibility
in the exercising of freedom. In fact, active citizenship helps us to distinguish, in all elements
of life, between power (and its forms) and authority (and its perverted form of
authoritarianism).
Ways of Recognising Authority: Legality and Legitimacy
Even though power and powers arise from the interaction of liberties, we, the citizens do not
accept just any sort of power or authority. We demand that powers and authorities have an
ethical, political and cultural foundation or basis. This basis or foundation is called legitimacy.
According to Max Weber, legality is one of the ways of legitimising political power and it has
become the most accepted way of breaking away from all sorts of authoritarianism, thus
promoting spaces for democratic citizenship.
TYPES OF LEGITIMACY FOR POLITICAL
POWER ACCORDING TO MAX WEBER
Traditional legitimacy
Charismatic legitimacy
Legitimacy based on
constitutional legality
Characterised by:
Tradition is the source or basis for power; “doing
things as they have always been done”.
Personal charisma is the source or basis for power:
“because of his charisma or personal qualities”.
The rule of law, laws or the constitution are the
source or basis for power: “in line with the law”.
3.-The Promotion of Justice: Rights and Responsibilities
The Law: Between Law and Rights
Learning about citizenship is directly related to the learning of laws. This does not
mean that those who know all the laws by heart are better citizens than those who do not
know them. We mean that active participation in a social and political organisation is
supported by or based on (legitimised by) an ordered set of laws. This systematised and
ordered set of laws receives the name of Law. Unlike the social habits, customs or right or
wrong forms of social behaviour, this is about written rules, structured and organized
according to the subject they regulate. For example, the highway or traffic code gathers in a
written, structured and organised manner the laws that regulate driving. In the same way
civil or criminal codes bring together the laws that regulate property or crimes against a
person's life.
Law is also referred to in terms of the right to make a claim for a just cause, for
example when we say "I have the right to X”, as if it says: “it is justice that I am granted X".
In this sense, the term “rights” describes the pretensions of justice that people or citizens
claim before legally constituted authorities.
Justice: Between Responsibility and Responsibilities
Learning about citizenship is also directly related to learning about responsibilities. In
the same way that we cannot separate heads from tails on coins, neither can we separate
rights from responsibilities. Any claim of a just cause entails a responsibility exercised by the
person who carries it out. If some neighbours demand sports facilities for their
neighbourhood because they have the right, they have to do it in a responsible manner, that
is to say, using the adequate methods, attending to the corresponding institutions and,
above all, taking joint responsibility for the claim. That is why we speak about responsibilities
in plural, as, apart from legal responsibilities, there are others, which can be social, cultural
or civil.
Activity: Good citizens or well-behaved citizens?
At the end of the 18th century the philosopher Immanuel Kant was posed an important
problem related to citizenship. What is the relationship between a good person and a
good citizen? Is it necessary to be a good person (in moral terms) in order to be a good
citizen (in legal terms)? Kant was so convinced about the value and importance of
citizenship that he asserted that even a town of intelligent devils would be interested in
coexistence among citizens.
“Man is obliged to be a good citizen although he is not obliged to be a morally
good man. The establishing of a state has a solution, even for a town of devils, as
surprising as it might sound, whenever they are intelligent, and the problem can be
formulated as follows: “Organising a crowd of rational human beings who, for their
conservation, jointly demand universal laws, even when each one tends internally to
evade the law means establishing a own constitution so that, although their particular
feelings are the opposite, they please both, so that the result of their public behaviour
would be the same as if they did not have such inclinations. (Kant, Perpetual Peace,
Tecnos, Madrid).
- Do you agree with Kant? Can a good person be a bad citizen? Can a good citizen be bad
person? Find reasons for your answer.
4. Learning Citizenship through Coexistence at School
The Most Familiar Spaces for the Participation of Citizens
Besides learning about rights and responsibilities, learning about citizenship is
learning about feelings. Even though they appear in writing in a code or document, rights
and responsibilities are not part of a lesson of civic responsibility that we have to learn by
heart. They are part of a lesson of civic responsibility that has to be performed during our
daily lives and, above all, in those spaces where we usually exercise our freedom.
We do not study the constitution or human rights in order to know them by heart,
rather we study them in order to be better citizens. This means that citizenship has a vital
and practical dimension that is a task, a training programme, and an exercise. In the same
way as before playing a game or carrying out a sporting activity we have to perform warmup exercises to be in shape and give the best of ourselves to the team, so we have to
understand and train in the rights and responsibilities of our most familiar spaces.
The School: A Space with Rights and Responsibilities
In order to perform this warm-up it might be interesting to know the rules that
govern coexistence in the schools to which we belong and in which we participate. Let's
remind ourselves of this dynamic of rights and responsibilities through the following table
from which we have taken some articles.
Derechos de los alumnos
Deberes de los alumnos
Art. 15. 1. Todos los alumnos tienen derecho a
recibir una formación integral que contribuya al
pleno desarrollo de su personalidad.
2. Para hacer efectivo este derecho, la educación
incluirá:
a.- la formación en valores y principios recogidos
en la normativa internacional, la Constitución
española y el Estatuto de Autonomía.
b.- La consecución de hábitos intelectuales y
sociales, y estrategias de trabajo, así como los
necesarios conocimientos científicos, técnicos,
humanísticos, históricos y uso de las tecnologías
de la información y la comunicación.
c.- La formación integral de la persona y el
conocimiento de su entorno social y cultural
inmediato, y en especial de la lengua, historia,
geografía, cultura y realidad de la sociedad
actual…./….
3. Los alumnos tienen el derecho a que sus
padres, madres o tutores velen por su formación
integral, colaborando para ello con la comunidad
educativa, especialmente en el cumplimiento de
las normas de convivencia y de medidas
establecidas que favorezcan el esfuerzo y el
estudio.
Art. 24. 1. El estudio es un deber básico de los
alumnos,
que
comporta
el
desarrollo
y
aprovechamiento de sus aptitudes personales y de
los conocimientos que se impartan.
2. La finalidad del deber del estudio es que, por
medio del aprendizaje efectivo de las distintas
materias que componen los programas, los
alumnos adquieran una formación integral que les
permita
alcanzar
el
máximo
rendimiento
académico, el pleno desarrollo de su personalidad,
la adquisición de hábitos intelectuales y técnicas
de trabajo, la preparación para participar en la
vida social y cultural, y la capacitación para el
ejercicio de las actividades profesionales.
3. Este deber, que requiere del esfuerzo,
la
disciplina y la responsabilidad se concreta en las
siguientes obligaciones:
a.- actitud activa, participativa y atenta en clase,
b.- participar en actividades formativas
c.- asistir con material y equipamiento necesario
d.- realizar las tareas encomendadas por los
profesores, …/…
f.- respetar el ejercicio del derecho y el deber del
estudio de los demás….
Activities;
1. Observe how the rules and regulations of your school are organised. Analyse the number
of articles, titles and sections of these rules and regulations and observe the progression
and development being used.
2. Read the rights and obligations that we give you here as an example throughly.
Summarise them in your own words. What are the standards that are underlined and
defended?