Review+of+Oceana

In //The Commonwealth of Oceana//, James Harrington explains the differences among other commonwealths, the establishment of the government in Oceana, and the four orders of Oceana’s commonwealth.

In //The Commonwealth of Oceana//, Harrington examines other commonwealths. Harrington first explains how the Commonwealth of Venice promotes equality more than any other commonwealths. He says that “there never happened any strife between the Senate and the people.” He then explains how in Rome some people want there to be inequality while others wanted there to be equality which caused strife with their Senate. Harrington then explains how the people of Rome would vote by throwing pieces of wood into urns that are marked as affirmative or negative. Harrington then says, the people of Rome welcomed a constitution, “as that which, not impairing the assurance of their blows, increased the freedom of their judgment.” Harrington’s explanations about different commonwealths help him to create his own of Oceana.

Oceana’s government is based on an ideal constitution that is designed to allow for the existence of a utopian republic. Harrington says that a equal commonwealth is a government in which the Senate debates and proposes many theories to resolve people’s problems within the government. In Oceana, there are many laws that promote civil behavior so that the community doesn’t get out of hand. Oceana’s government is very helpful to the Senate, the state, and its citizens.

In James Harrington’s utopia of Oceana, there are four orders that help maintain the community. The first order “distributes the people into freemen or citizens and servants, while such; for if they attain to liberty, that is, to live of themselves, they are freemen or citizens.” His second order distributes citizens into youth and elders. The people who are from eighteen to thirty years of age are considered youth, and people over the age of thirty are considered elders. This also establishes that the youth should be in the army while the elders are the leaders of the nation. The third order distributes the citizens into “horse and foot” by the nature of their estates. The final order distributes the people according to the places of their habitation, into parishes, hundreds, and tribes.

James Harrington’s //The Commonwealth of Oceana// explains the way that Oceana’s government is run. Harrington's utopia is a result of his study of many other commonwealths. Harrington also describes the four main orders of his society and how they help run it.

Posted by Atlantis