Thomas Hobbes' Idea of the State and Its Relation with the Citizen

Hobbes' Idea of the State and Its Relation with the Citizen

When looking at Hobbes’ idea of the state and its relation with the citizen, it is strikingly shocking how supportive of the authoritarian and absolutist form of monarchical government he is. His ideas are extreme for today’s democratic world however, he is seen as the founder of great liberal political thoughts such as the natural contract. Furthermore he gives great emphasis to the study of the individual in the first book of his work. Although, obviously monarchical, Hobbes also argues in favor of democracy and aristocracy: two less authoritarian forms of government. Hobbes has a historical reputation for validating absolute monarchy, and his work is often dismissed as dictatorial. But it must be remembered that, for Hobbes, sovereignty does not only reside in a king but also in sovereign congresses and sovereign democracies and ultimately the people enable any of these three forms of government to rule, according to what best suits the community.

Although the laws of nature require that human beings seek peace, and maintain that the establishment of contracts is the best means of doing so, the natural human hunger for power always threatens the safety of the contract. Hobbes concludes that there must be some common power, some sovereign authority, to force people to uphold the contract. This sovereign would be established by the people as part of the contract, endowed with the individual powers and wills of all, and authorized to punish anyone who breaks the covenant. The sovereign operates through fear; the threat of punishment reinforces the mandates of the laws of nature, thus ensuring the continued operation of the social contract.

T...

... middle of paper ...

...to rule.

Therefore to conclude we can say that it is therefore evident that Hobbes’ idea of the state as such can fit thoughts for individual freedoms. His authoritarian Leviathan is only the way in which society should be organised; it by no means implies that the individual is to behave like a machine driven by the state, this idea would fit the idea of communism better than Hobbes’ Leviathan. His main thought on the relation between individual rights and the well-functioning of the state is that the people should be enabled to posses these rights as long as they respect the fact that they have been given these rights. In other words the status quo should be maintained, law and order being enforced accordingly and the individual will have rights that, controlled by the state, will enable the sovereignty to be organised, prosperous and peaceful.