Mülkiyet ve Cumhuriyet: James Harrington’ın Siyasi Düşüncesi ve İdeal Devleti Okyanusya

Abstract

İngiltere’nin on yedinci yüzyılına damga vuran yazarlardan bir tanesi olan James Harrington, Okyanusya (1656) eseriyle siyasal teori alanına katkıda bulunmuştur. Ancak, bu eser Türkçe yazında göz ardı edilmiştir. Okyanusya eserinde anayasal bir sistem sunan Harrington, kurumsal ve siyasal istikrarı bu öneri üzerinden gerçekleştirmeye çalışmıştır. Mülkiyetin ülke içerisindeki yurttaşlar arasındaki dağılımının ülkenin siyasal sistemiyle doğrudan bağlantılı olduğunu savunan düşünür, mülkiyetin yurttaşlar arasında dengeli bir şekilde elde tutulmasının istikrarı sağlayacağını savunmuştur. Çokluğun mülkiyete sahip olmasına en uygun yönetim biçiminin de cumhuriyet olduğu ileri sürülmüştür. Bu çalışmada, yurttaşların mülkiyet eşitlikleri ya da eşitsizliklerinin cumhuriyetin kurulması ve yaşatılmasındaki rolü Okyanusya eseri üzerinden değerlendirilecektir.

Keywords

• cumhuriyet
• denge
• eşitlik
• mülkiyet
• yurttaşlık

Property and the Republic: James Harrington’s Political Thought and His Ideal State, Oceana

Abstract

James Harrington, a prominent figure of seventeenth-century England, made a significant contribution to political theory with his Oceana (1656), a work largely overlooked in Turkish scholarship. In this text, Harrington advanced a constitutional model aimed at securing institutional and political stability. Central to his argument was the claim that the distribution of property among citizens directly shapes the political system: balanced ownership fosters stability, while concentration undermines it. He further asserted that republican government is the most appropriate regime when property is broadly held. This study examines, through Oceana, how property equality or inequality influences the foundation and durability of republican institutions.

Keywords

• citizenship
• balance
• equality
• property
• republic

References

1. Arienzo, A. (2015). Harrington, James. M. Sgarbi (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of Renaissance Philosophy içinde (ss. 1119-1120). Springer. Cotton, J. (1981). James Harrington and Thomas Hobbes. Journal of the History of Ideas, 42(3), 407–421.
2. Davis, J. C. (2017). Alternative worlds imagined, 1500–1700: Essays on radicalism, utopianism and reality. Palgrave Macmillan.
3. Diamond, W. C. (1978). Natural philosophy in Harrington’s political thought. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 16(4), 387–398. https://doi.org/10.1353/hph.2008.0781
4. Fink, Z. S. (1962). The classical republicans: An essay in the recovery of a pattern of thought in seventeenth-century England. Northwestern University Press.
5. Hammersley, R. (2013). Rethinking the political thought of James Harrington: Royalism, republicanism and democracy. History of European Ideas, 39(3), 354–370. https://doi.org/10.1080/01916599.2012.703458
6. Harrington, J. (1955). The political writings of James Harrington (C. Blitzer, Ed.). The Liberal Arts Press.
7. Harrington, J. (1977). The political works of James Harrington (J. G. A. Pocock, Ed.). Cambridge University Press.
8. Harrington, J. (1992). The Commonwealth of Oceana and a system of politics (J. G. A. Pocock, Ed.). Cambridge University Press.

9. Macpherson, C. B. (2024). Mülkiyetçi bireyciliğin siyasal teorisi: Hobbes’tan Locke’a (A. Karatay, Çev.). Ketebe Yayınları. (Özgün eser 1962'de yayımlanmıştır)
10. Morton, A. L. (1976). A people’s history of England. Lawrence & Wishart Ltd.
11. Pettit, P. (1997). Republicanism: A theory of freedom and government. Clarendon Press.
12. Pettit, P. (2012). On the people’s terms: A republican theory and model of democracy. Cambridge University Press.
13. Pocock, J. G. A. (1970). James Harrington and the Good Old Cause: A study of the ideological context of his writings. Journal of British Studies, 10(1), 30–48.
14. Pocock, J. G. A. (2014). The Machiavellian moment: Florentine political thought and the Atlantic republican tradition. Princeton University Press.
15. Raab, F. (1965). The English face of Machiavelli: A changing interpretation 1500-1700. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
16. Rahe, P. A. (2008). Against throne and altar: Machiavelli and political theory under the English republic. Cambridge University Press.
17. Reeve, A. (1984). Harrington’s elusive balance. History of European Ideas, 5(4), 401–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-6599(84)90044-5
18. Remer, G. (1995). James Harrington’s new deliberative rhetoric: Reflection of an anticlassical republicanism. History of Political Thought, 16(4), 532–557.
19. Robertson, G. (2018). The Levellers: The Putney debates. Verso.
20. Shklar, J. N. (1959). Ideology hunting: The case of James Harrington. The American Political Science Review, 53(3), 662–692. https://doi.org/10.2307/1951937
21. Toth, K. (1975). Interpretation in political theory: The case of Harrington. The Review of Politics, 37(3), 317–339.
22. Wettergreen, J. A. (1988). James Harrington’s liberal republicanism. Polity, 20(4), 665–687.
23. Wood, E. M., & Wood, N. (2008). İsyan borusu: Kapitalizmin yükselişi ve siyasal teori 1509-1688 (F. Bakırcı, Çev.). Epos Yayınları. (Özgün eser 1997'de yayımlanmıştır)
24. Woodford, B. (2013). Perceptions of a monarchy without a king: Reactions to Oliver Cromwell’s power. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
25. Yerby, G. (2008). People and parliament: Representative rights and the English revolution. Palgrave Macmillan.