Social Contract Theory II

Date @04/16/2024

Synthesizing the Social Contracy Theory

Functions and/or Limits of the State Leadership
What can the state and society do?

State Formation and Funcations in Three Views

Hobbes’ View (Authoritarian)

The SC produces the Leviathan

the Leviathan has been appointed

the Leviathan is not accountable to the individual but only answers to the mandate

the Leviathan is a product

the people willingly submit themselves to the Leviathan

Verbal/tacit consent + POS

one government, judge, society, ruler

only one to avoid ambiguity

Hobbes’ commonwealth (mutual covenant; lex naturalis, rules made legally-binding)

Right to self-preservation

Locke’s View (Representative)

the SC creates civil/political society

people must agree with one another

consent should be FRIES

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 Free

Reversible

Informed

Enthusiastic

Specific/specified

FTA creates the government for the people

Fiduciary trust agreement

public trust to the government of your choosing

Has separation of government

Rousseau’s View (Popular)

“new” SC replaces the “old” SC

consent by residence and the freedom of migration

freedom to leave when they are no longer benefitting

the embodiment of the people’s interests through the General Will

Thomas Hobbes
The Authoritarian State and Government

unified, consistent, hierarchical monarchy

he doesn’t see hirarchy as a place of oppression

chain of command

he hates ambiguous leadership

due to the situation he saw in the church where there is no clear accountablity

peace, order, and security before morality

vs. man’s poisonous doctrine

the belief of people in themselves

overconfidence can poison their minds and make mistakes

self-righteousness is dangerous

Nine Rights of the Leviathan (see IRN)

the exchange of disobeying the Leviathan is going back to the state of nature

you cannot easily depose a leviathan — this is opposing the consistence

the leviathan is extremely powerful (it is sovereign)

authoritarian leadership is not equal to totalitarian rule

the leviathan still has to prove the validity of his judgment before he execute it

totalitarian leader meddles with everything

authoritarian leader has a condition in leading (POS)

John Locke
The Representative State and Government

Separation of Powers (ELF)

Executive

Legislative

Social Contract Theory II 2

 Federative

Relative Legislation Supremacy

Value of Political Representation

Life, Liberty, and Property as top priority

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Popular State and Government

Popular Sovereignty: the state = the people

Natural Liberty → Civil Liberty → Moral Liberty

Law to Limit Action and Liberate Oneself

Let sovereign people be “forced to be free”

The General Will

the pursuit to moral liberty

does moral liberty require a law?

even when something is not in the law, if we know that it is bad, we still don’t do it.

what stops us if there’s now law is ourselves (our own morals)

The will of all is not the same as the general will

General will is the common good

it is not always fair

Critiques of the Social Contract Theories

Self-preservation (Hobbes’ View)

cannot violate right to self-preservtion (jus naturale)

weak-willed sovereign ruler

uncontrolled political unrest

rule of personal conscience (poisonous doctrine)

rule of law over ruler

unfair division of property

government is divided

you can delegate tasks but you cannot divide power

Rights to resistance (Locke’s View)

law must be equally implemented, non-arbitrary, consent-driven, and law-making is non-transferable

no to corruption and slavery

no to political crisis among powers

govt dissolution not= state collapse

the right to resist

grievance mechanism

in this, way the people can give feedback

Morality (Rousseau’s View)

General Will must be for the common good by all

Issue of self-discipline (human fallibility)

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 Issue of deliberative democracy (impracticality)

It may be good for the general people, but it is subject to ambiguity

Critiques on the Hobbesian Social Contract

presumed rationality of people in the state of war

people are still rational, they are rational enough to pursue self-interest

they use fraud and force to protect their self-interest

thus, leading to war

the objective rationality of the Leviathan

fear begets fear (i.e., perpetual fear remains)

fear of the Leviathan can overshadow our perpetual fear of the violent

consent is non-reversible and under duress

Critiques on the Lockean Social Contract

Law of Nature’s Historical Ambivalence

were they born in the state of nature or born into that

Theoretical Limit of the Lockean Proviso

Theoretical Limit of Political Representation

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