Government And Thomas Hobbes: The Creation Of Government

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Government is a body of rule naturally set up by the people through necessity, as it is the logical way to regulate society and maintain a modicum of order in everyday life. Without government, people are subject to their own rationale on how to best live their own lives and preserve their own rights, and as the way they rationalize it is not always conducive to the lives of others in their environment, the creation and execution of a power is needed to curb and unite them. The creation of government can only be legitimately done through the agreement and consent of the people, and because people are rational creatures, they recognize this as the best way to secure their individual rights and freedoms, as well as avoid the detrimental effects …show more content…

Hobbes, like Locke, believes that man must leave the state of nature, where all have their own rights and power, and come together to institute a government through the mutual agreement of the majority, in an effort to preserve the common good (Cahn, p.333). Because Hobbes believes everyone is driven by “natural passions” and their own reason, there is a constant war of “everyone against everyone” and their goals; bringing about an element of fear that pushes people into reasonably deciding to come together, as their passions seek to meet their ends of preserving themselves, no matter the cost (Cahn, p.322). For Hobbes, the only solution to meet those ends is to transfer individual rights, which in doing so, forms a contract with others to set up a higher power that would make those under it fear the outcome of any violation against its laws (Cahn, …show more content…

As it is the people who created it, they can set limitations on its scope, how it is regulated, and who is involved. If the government changes, or goes against its people’s rights and wishes, “the people are at liberty to provide for themselves, by erecting a new legislature, differing from the other, by the change of persons, or form, or both” (Cahn, p.389). This is a sentiment found in Locke’s ideas, but when it comes to Hobbes, he would disagree, in that there must be an absolute sovereign. Once the people have made a covenant and the power has been “conferred by [their] consent”, they are then “bound by [that] covenant” and “are subjects to a monarch”, unable to cast them off or transfer powers to another, whether to another person or group (Cahn, p.333). This effectively turns people into hostages of a single ruler, good or bad, and in this, they have no true freedom; “depending on sovereign power” to dictate the laws, standards of right and wrong, and judicial matters, without any input as it is believed that the sovereign alone can truly act for the public good (Cahn,

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