LSE Visit Day – Government Department
Taster Lecture –
Must the Sovereign be Absolute?
Professor Paul Kelly
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Aims and Objectives
Lecture based on Lecture 12 of GV 100 – one of
two compulsory introductory courses.
Introduce you to the ideas of Thomas Hobbes
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2.
3.
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The Problem of Politics
State of Nature and Contract Method
Account of Sovereign
To draw some conclusions from Hobbes’ theory.
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Thomas Hobbes (1588-1672)
Born Malmesbury Wiltshire
Educated at Oxford
Hobbes worked as a free-lance
scholar in residence to the
Aristocratic Cavendish family –
the Duke of Devonshire.
1651 published Leviathan
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The State of Nature
1. Egoism – desire for self-preservation as fear of violent
death.
2. Scarcity
3. Diffidence – suspicion (not timidity)
4. Glory-seeking – Being better than one’s neighbour
5. Natural Equality
All this equals War of all against all. Society is NOT natural,
war IS natural. Because of this we create the state. Civility
depends on Political Society.
Hobbes’ project: how can men live together, given that their temperaments and
circumstances do not predispose them to peace?
His central argument is this: people should contract with one another to entrust the task of
judging what is right and wrong to a sovereign on whom very extensive powers are
conferred.
Hobbes defends absolutism – but NOT divine right of Kings.
What we find is that political communities are not natural but are resolvable into individuals.
Thus political society must be an artificial construction to provide goods that individuals
cannot provide alone.
Chief among these is security/stability on which all else rests.
This is a rejection of the main plank of pre-modern political theory since Aristotle and one
shared by Aquinas – society is natural and a reflection of our natures.
Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre, where everyman is
Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live
without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall
furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the
fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no
Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no
commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as
require force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts;
no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of
violent death; And the life of man solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short. Chap
13.
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Natural Law
19 laws of nature in all, 3 are Really Important
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3.
Preserve yourself
Seek Peace When others are willing to do so
Keep agreements
These are coupled with the Right of Nature – to do all one
needs in order to preserve oneself. This is a natural
motivation but also one that is not bounded by a duty.
Dictates of reason but without a sanction – or punishment for non compliance.
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The Original Contract
The wording of the agreement.
I Authorize and give up my Right of Governing my selfe, to this Man,
or to this Assembly of men, on this condition, that thou give up thy
Right to him, and Authorize all his Actions in like manner. (Chap,
XVI 87-88.)
The agreement is NOT with the sovereign, it is between
each one of us to authorise the sovereign.
In authorising the Sovereign we make his actions ours.
If we found ourselves in a state of nature we would leave it
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The Powers of the Sovereign
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3.
4.
7.
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No individual can judge the Sovereign without acting
unjustly.
Whatever the Sovereign does CANNOT injure his
subjects.
Whatever the Sovereign does cannot be punished by
subjects.
Sovereign is the sole judge of what is necessary for peace
of his subjects.
He is the sole and final judge on all controversies.
He decides all rewards and punishments.
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Conclusion
Must Sovereignty be absolute? – Hobbes’ answer is yes.
This claim is both prudential and logical – without an absolute power of
the state we would be in a mess. Look at failed states. But he also draws
our attention to the logical point of authority.
Authority is derived from a people not imposed from above – so there
is no legitimate political authority outside a state or political community.
Yet current experience (Libya) suggests that we are uncomfortable with
such absolutism but find it difficult to dismiss the idea of state’s rights
and legitimate jurisdiction.
Political Scientists – examine three things: Ideas, interests and institutions. Studying political ideas
is part of the broader study of politics.
Are they merely historically contingent? – Quentin Skinner argues that we must examine political
ideas in their linguistic context in order to appreciate their true meaning. So political ideas are
really part of history and only relevant for that reason.
Marx also suggests that political ideas are epiphenomena of real political forces which are
material. To be focused on ideas is to miss the real point of political conflict.
This view leads to crass cultural relativism – rights, liberties, value concepts etc are all culturally
relative and merely matters of opinion. I think Marx is mistaken – ideas have a more complex role
in shaping how we understand politics. They are not simply structures within which we are forced
to act but also open up opportunities for agency.
We can see this in the way in which they shape the architecture of politics – this is revealed in the
debates about the size of the state. Big Society is concerned with competences – the things the
state does, but not with the limits of authority. Left and Right are beginning to think the state
should be smaller but are they happy with it being subordinate to external authorities.
We can see this in debates about Libya and the UN, the authority of corrupt regimes and the
extent to which regimes must respond to their people.
Hobbes presents us with a way of understanding the modern state – but he also defends its
unlimited power as necessary. Hobbes is one side of a debate in which we are currently still
locked.
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