Absolute Power: A State of War Against Its People

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is at odds with the idea of a civil society since it is illogical to think that people would consent to be governed by a government that is worse than the state of nature. A society in which the government is above or outside the law remains in a state of nature because there is no security against violence and oppression. Therefore, this exercise of arbitrary power again puts the absolute government in a state of war against its people because, as Locke writes: He who attempts to get another man into his absolute power, does thereby put himself in a state of war with him; it being understood as a declaration of design upon his life….The injury and the crime is equal, whether committed by the wearer of a crown, or some petty villain (Locke …show more content…

Hobbes’s government is impossible, firstly, because people have no arbitrary power to transfer. Secondly, a government that is not bound by laws is no government at all since it remains in a state of nature with its citizens. Lastly, the Hobbesian sovereign’s right to take away his subjects’ property makes the establishment of this form of government incongruous because the purpose of the government is the protection of property. Absolute arbitrary government comes about only when the government exceeds its authority and is not something that should be strived for. Therefore, the government, which Hobbes proposes to exit the state of war, would, for Locke, directly introduce or set the stage for civil war. In Locke’s Treatise, the social contract binds citizens to a government, which is responsible to its citizenry. If the government fails to represent the interest of its citizens, its citizens have the right and obligation to overthrow it. By contrast, in Hobbes’s Leviathan, there is no reciprocal relationship between the ruler and the ruled. Absolute arbitrary government invests all rights in the sovereign and the citizens forfeit their rights. It is because of these different views on the purpose and origin of government that one can say Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government” is a successful confutation of Hobbes’s

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