The Rights of Man · Chapter
Of the Old and New Systems of Government explained
Paine contrasts the old hereditary system of government, based on war and power, with the new representative system, based on peace and the common benefit of society.
What happens
Paine contrasts the old hereditary system of government, based on war and power, with the new representative system, based on peace and the common benefit of society. He argues that hereditary government is tyrannical and inadequate, while representative government is rational, mature, and suited to large territories. He criticizes Burke's defense of monarchy and praises the American model of representation ingrafted upon democracy.
Themes in this chapter
Natural Rights of Man
Paine grounds the new system of government in the original, inherent Rights of Man, arguing that hereditary government violates these rights.
Representative Government
Paine champions representative government as the new system, contrasting it with hereditary monarchy and praising its maturity and rationality.
Critique of Hereditary Government
Paine condemns hereditary government as tyranny, mental levelling, and inadequate for the purposes of government.
Peace and Anti-War
Paine contrasts the old system's reliance on war with the new system's promotion of peace as the true means of enriching a nation.
Characters to notice
- Edmund Burke
Paine dismisses Burke's talk of old and new whigs as childish, and critiques his defense of monarchy.
- Abbé Sieyès
Paine addresses this chapter to the Abbé Sieyès, to whom he is engaged to discuss monarchical government.
Key passages
“Government, on the old system, is an assumption of power, for the aggrandisement of itself; on the new, a delegation of power for the common benefit of society.”
Old governments seize power to enrich themselves, while new governments receive power from the people to serve everyone.
Paine's core distinction between the two systems of government.
“All hereditary government is in its nature tyranny. An heritable crown, or an heritable throne, or by what other fanciful name such things may be called, have no other significant explanation than that mankind are heritable property.”
Any government passed down through inheritance is inherently oppressive, treating people like property to be inherited.
Paine's condemnation of hereditary rule as a form of ownership over people.
“It is on this system that the American government is founded. It is representation ingrafted upon democracy.”
The American government is built on a system of representation combined with democracy.
Paine highlights the American model as the exemplar of the new system.