Political Community Essay

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# Question 2. How do humans enter into a political community? What should be the relationship between the sovereign (explain what this is) and the citizens/subjects? Should the citizens have the right to dissent from the sovereigns authority? Discussion According to various theorists, including Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, people have always departed their natural state and joined a political community. People will leave their natural state, especially if there is no supreme authority and become part of a political community through assent. After the assent, when the citizens have agreed to cede some of their vital natural rights to an authority, such as a government, it becomes sovereign and legitimate. A sovereign government …show more content…

This is the only way through which a political community can be formed (Grant, 1991). According to him, the majority should usher in the government of the day to day to the office; the majority has the right to act and conclude the rest. It implied that any government had to solicit the consent of the people before assuming the office. The people, by consenting to the government, were giving up some of their rights to the very government and to the community. The government, in return, owed the people a duty of protection. This, he called the theory of social contract that, involved the government and its people (Audi, 2011). It is, therefore, the duty of the government to be neutral, and allow the people to consent to its existence. This will create a state of peace in the nation. He is simply disputing any form of government that has not been approved by the people. He is also, in a way, urging the people to consent to the government, as it will protect them in return. This is a win-win …show more content…

The first one was called ‘Sovereignty by Institution’. Here, the people willingly agree to covenant, and submit to the authority in place. However, when the people are intimidated to submit to the authority, they covenant only by protection. This is what Hobbes, together with other philosophers, called ‘Sovereignty by Acquisition’. It should be remembered that both the aforementioned forms of sovereignty are treated as legitimate; whether by institution or by acquisition (Brown, 2014). Hobbes is very much concerned with Sovereignty because it is what makes a government autonomous power. Sovereignty of a government makes it independent of any foreign power, and free from any form of neo-colonialism. Therefore, Sovereignty brings independence to

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