structure for 'Political Theory'    |     alphabetical list of themes    |     unexpand these ideas

24. Political Theory / B. Nature of a State / 2. State Legitimacy / c. Social contract

[power derived from agreement among citizens]

30 ideas
Even the poorest have a life to lead, and so should consent to who governs them [-]
     Full Idea: For really I think that the poorest hee that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest hee; …and every Man that is to live under a Government ought first by his own Consent to put himself under that Government.
     From: - (The Putney Debates [1647])
     A reaction: [remark made by Thomas Rainsborough] This is the social contract idea which is explicit in Hobbes. I'm sure we can at least trace it back to John Lilburne in the 1630s.
After a taste of mutual harm, men make a legal contract to avoid it [Plato]
     Full Idea: Once people experience committing wrong and suffering it, they see the disadvantages are unavoidable and the benefits unobtainable, ...so they enter into a contract, guaranteeing no permitting or receiving wrong, ...and they then make laws and decrees.
     From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 359a)
     A reaction: This seems to be the earliest statement of the social contract idea. Here it both sets up the state and creates morality. This is Glaucon speaking, and is NOT endorsed by Socrates.
A law is not just if it is not useful in mutual associations [Epicurus]
     Full Idea: If someone passes a law and it does not turn out to be in accord with what is useful in mutual associations, this no longer possesses the nature of justice.
     From: Epicurus (Principle Doctrines ('Kuriai Doxai') (frags) [c.290 BCE], 37)
The Second Treatise explores the consequences of the contractual view of the state [Locke, by Scruton]
     Full Idea: In his second Treatise, Locke gave us perhaps the first extended account of the true logical consequences of Hobbes's contractual view of the state.
     From: report of John Locke (Second Treatise of Government [1690]) by Roger Scruton - Short History of Modern Philosophy Ch.14
     A reaction: The issue seems to boil down to an opposition between the Cartesian and the Aristotelian view of the individual, with Locke following Descartes. The alternative, endorsed by Hegel, which I prefer, is that the state is part of human nature.
A society only begins if there is consent of all the individuals to join it [Locke]
     Full Idea: The beginning of politic society depends upon the consent of the individuals to join into and make one society.
     From: John Locke (Second Treatise of Government [1690], 106)
     A reaction: This is the dramatic new political idea (originating with Hobbes), that all of the members must (at some point) consent to the state. In practice we are all born into a state, so it is not clear what this means in real life.
If anyone enjoys the benefits of government (even using a road) they give tacit assent to its laws [Locke]
     Full Idea: Every man, that hath an possession, or enjoyment, of any part of the dominions of any government, doth thereby give his tacit consent, and is obliged to obedience to the laws, ..whether it be barely travelling on the highway.
     From: John Locke (Second Treatise of Government [1690], 119), quoted by Gordon Graham - Eight Theories of Ethics Ch.8
     A reaction: Locke's famous assertion of an unspoken and inescapable contract, to which we are all subject. Hume gave an effective reply (Idea 6703). Locke has a point though. The more you accept, the more obliged you are. I accept the law more as I get older.
A politic society is created from a state of nature by a unanimous agreement [Locke]
     Full Idea: That which makes the community, and brings men out of the loose state of Nature into one politic society, is the agreement that everyone has with the rest to incorporate and act as one body.
     From: John Locke (Second Treatise of Government [1690], 211)
     A reaction: Geography usually keeps commonwealths in place once they have been established, but some of them become disfunctional hell holes because they are trapped in perpetual disagreement.
The idea that society rests on consent or promises undermines obedience [Hume]
     Full Idea: Were you to preach in most parts of the world that political connections are founded altogether on voluntary consent or a mutual promise, the magistrate would soon imprison you as seditious for loosening the ties of obedience.
     From: David Hume (Of the original contract [1741], p.278)
     A reaction: He cites obedience as the prime civic virtue, because the law can't operate without it. He doesn't seem to consider the limiting cases of obedience, which makes him essentially a conservative.
We no more give 'tacit assent' to the state than a passenger carried on board a ship while asleep [Hume]
     Full Idea: [If we give 'tacit' assent to the state] ...we may as well assert that a man, by remaining in a vessel, freely consents to the dominion of the master, though he was carried aboard while asleep.
     From: David Hume (Of the original contract [1741], p.283)
     A reaction: We should probably drop the whole idea that we give assent to the state. We are stuck with a state, and a few of us can escape, if it seems important enough, but most of us have no choice. He hope to assent to the controllers of the state.
The people would be amazed to learn that government arises from their consent [Hume]
     Full Idea: When we assert that all lawful government arises from the consent of the people, we certainly do them a great deal more honour than they deserve, or even expect or desire from us.
     From: David Hume (Of the original contract [1741], p.285)
     A reaction: Hume has no interest in the purely abstract idea of a contract, and scorns Locke's idea of tacit consent to government. I assume he would dismiss Rawls as unrealistic theorising. Hume loves peace, and is alarmed by change.
The social order is a sacred right, but based on covenants, not nature [Rousseau]
     Full Idea: The social order is a sacred right which serves as a basis for all other rights; and as it is not a natural right, it must be one founded on covenants.
     From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.1)
     A reaction: I think Rousseau is offering a contradiction here, when he suggests we have a 'sacred' right, which is nevertheless only based on 'covenants'. You can't have it both ways. This is an abuse of the word 'sacred'.
The government is instituted by a law, not by a contract [Rousseau]
     Full Idea: The act that institutes the government is not a contract but a law.
     From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.18)
     A reaction: This is a law which implements the general will. There is nothing for citizens to make a contract with, since the sovereign is an abstraction, whereas a social contract is made between actual people. I like Rousseau's big idea.
Kant made the social contract international and cosmopolitan [Kant, by Oksala]
     Full Idea: Kant developed the social contract theory into an international and cosmopolitan idea.
     From: report of Immanuel Kant (Perpetual Peace [1795]) by Johanna Oksala - Political Philosophy: all that matters Ch.6
     A reaction: That is, the contract both operates between states, and rises above them. I found this idea rather thrilling when I first met it (listening to Onora O'Neill). But then I remain a child of the Englightenment.
Personal contracts are for some end, but a civil state contract involves a duty to share [Kant]
     Full Idea: In all social contracts, we find a union of many individuals for some common end which they all share. But a union as an end in itself which they all ought to share …is only found in a society insofar as it constitutes a civil state i.e. a commonwealth.
     From: Immanuel Kant (True in Theory, but not in Practice [1792], 2 Intro)
     A reaction: This makes a nice link between the contractarian individual morality of Hobbes and his social contract view of society. Kant seems to reject the first but accept the second. Presumably because the first implies benefit and the second implies duty.
There must be a unanimous contract that citizens accept majority decisions [Kant]
     Full Idea: The actual principle of being content with majority decisions must be accepted unanimously and embodied in a contract, and this itself must be the ultimate basis on which a civil constitution is established.
     From: Immanuel Kant (True in Theory, but not in Practice [1792], 2-3)
     A reaction: This is the contract which combines a social contract with democracy. We unanimously agree not to be unanimous? Cf Idea 21065. What should the minority do when the majority elect criminal Nazi leaders?
A contract is theoretical, but it can guide rulers to make laws which the whole people will accept [Kant]
     Full Idea: The original contract …is merely an idea of reason, which nonetheless has undoubted practical reality; for it can oblige every legislator to frame his laws in such a way that they could have been produced by the united will of a whole nation.
     From: Immanuel Kant (True in Theory, but not in Practice [1792], 2-Concl)
     A reaction: The contractualist theory of morality of Thomas Scanlon approaches this. Note that Kant says it 'can' oblige the legislators. Nothing would compel them to follow such a principle.
Individuals can't leave the state, because they are natural citizens, and humans require a state [Hegel]
     Full Idea: The arbitrary will of individuals cannot break away from the state, because the individual is already by nature a citizen of it. It is the rational destiny of humans to live within a state, and if there is no state reason requires it to be established.
     From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Elements of the Philosophy of Right [1821], 075 add)
     A reaction: The Aristotelian view, in opposition to the social contract idea that individuals must choose to have a state. I agree with Hegel, but find his authoritarian tone disturbing. What else will I be told is my 'rational destiny'? We want liberal communiity.
Society isn’t founded on a contract, since contracts presuppose a society [Hegel, by Scruton]
     Full Idea: For Hegel, society cannot be founded on a contract, since contracts have no reality until society is in place.
     From: report of Georg W.F.Hegel (works [1812]) by Roger Scruton - Modern Philosophy:introduction and survey 28.2
     A reaction: Interesting, and reminiscent of the private language argument, but contracts surely start as deals between individuals (on a desert island?).
The social contract sees society as constituted by and for individuals [Taylor,C]
     Full Idea: The social contract theory …has a vision of society as in some sense constituted by individuals for the fulfilment of ends which are primarily individual.
     From: Charles Taylor (Atomism [1979], p.29)
     A reaction: It seems to be initiated by individuals who are only motivated by what is in it for them. This presumes self-sufficient adults, rather than children, or parents with children, or dependent people. The epitome of liberalism, perhaps.
Power is only legitimate if it is reasonable for free equal citizens to endorse the constitution [Rawls]
     Full Idea: Exercise of political power is fully proper only when it is exercised in accordance with a constitution the essentials of which all citizens as free and equal may reasonably be expected to endorse in light of principles and ideals acceptable to reason.
     From: John Rawls (Political Liberalism [1993], p.217), quoted by Andrew Shorten - Contemporary Political Theory 02
     A reaction: This is not the actual endorsement of Rousseau, or the tacit endorsement of Locke (by living there), but adds a Kantian appeal to a rational consensus, on which rational people should converge. Very Enlightenment. 'Hypothetical consent'.
Social contracts assume equal powers among the participants [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: All contract theories, including Rawls's, assume a rough equality of physical and mental power among the participants.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 4)
Social contract theories are usually rejected because there never was such a contract [Kymlicka]
     Full Idea: Social contract theories have all been subjected to the same criticism - that there never was such a state of nature, or such a contract. Hence neither citizens nor government are bound by it. Contracts only create obligations if they are actually agreed.
     From: Will Kymlicka (Contemporary Political Philosophy (1st edn) [1990], 3.3)
     A reaction: Even if they have been agreed in the past, why should subsequent generations be bound to them? Modern Germans aren't bound by their grandparents' oaths of allegiance to fascism.
Just visiting (and using roads) is hardly ratifying the Constitution [Sandel]
     Full Idea: It is hard to see how just passing through town is morally akin to ratifying the Constitution.
     From: Michael J. Sandel (Justice: What's the right thing to do? [2009], 06)
     A reaction: They say that philosophical ideas are never refuted, and no progress is made, but this sure put paid to John Locke.
The benefits of social freedom outweigh the loneliness, doubt and alienation it brings [Scruton]
     Full Idea: While the goods of freedom, such as rights, property, education and prosperity, can be obtained only at a price - the price of loneliness, doubt and alienation - it is a price worth paying.
     From: Roger Scruton (Upon Nothing: Swansea lecture [1993])
     A reaction: A striking way for a liberal-conservative to confront the accusations of the marxists - by conceding a lot of their criticisms, but living with them. I still don't see why we shouldn't aspire to have both.
For utilitarians, consent to the state is irrelevant, if it produces more happiness [Wolff,J]
     Full Idea: On the utilitarian account the state is justified if and only if it produces more happiness than any alternative. Whether we consent to the state is irrelevant.
     From: Jonathan Wolff (An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Rev) [2006], 2 'Intro')
     A reaction: The paternalistic character of utilitarianism is a familiar problem. I quite like this approach, even though liberals will find it a bit naughty. We make children go to school, for their own good. Experts endorse society, even when citizens don't.
Social contract theory has the attracton of including everyone, and being voluntary [Wolff,J]
     Full Idea: Social contract theory ...satisfies the twin demands of universalism - every person must be obligated - and voluntarism - political obligations can come into existence only through consent.
     From: Jonathan Wolff (An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Rev) [2006], 2 'Voluntaristic')
     A reaction: I'm going off the idea that being a member of large society is voluntary. It can't possibly be so for most people, and it shouldn't be. I'm British, and society expects me to remain so (though they might release me, if convenient).
Maybe voting in elections is a grant of legitimacy to the winners [Wolff,J]
     Full Idea: One thought is that consent to government is communicated via the ballot-box. In voting for the government we give it our consent.
     From: Jonathan Wolff (An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Rev) [2006], 2 'Voluntaristic')
     A reaction: Hm. This may be a strong positive reason why some people refuse to vote. We shouldn't load voting with such heavy commitments. It's just 'given the current situation, who will be temporarily in charge'.
A social contract limits the pursuit of justice to members of a single society [Sen]
     Full Idea: The use of the social contract in the Rawlsian form inescapably limits the involvement of participants in the pursuit of justice to the members of a given polity, or 'people'.
     From: Amartya Sen (The Idea of Justice [2009], 02 'Relevance')
     A reaction: This relates to the criticism of contractarian ethics - that the weak have nothing to bargain with. One can either add international contracts, or appeal to natural human rights. Or we could just be nice to one another? Nah!
Social contracts and markets have made society seem disconnected and artificial [Aho]
     Full Idea: Modern society has come to be viewed as something artificial, an aggregate of disconnected individuals that is held together by instrumental social contracts and monetary exchanges.
     From: Kevin Aho (Existentialism: an introduction [2014], 1 'Emergence')
     A reaction: This is all long of you, Thomas Hobbes! Aho is explaining the rebellion of existentialists against this - though existentialism strikes me as another variant of liberal individualism.
Hypothetical contracts have no binding force [Swift]
     Full Idea: A common objection to Rawls is that hypothetical contracts, unlike real ones, have no binding force.
     From: Adam Swift (Political Philosophy (3rd ed) [2014], 1 'Rawls')
     A reaction: [I think Dworkin made this point] 'Contract' may be metaphorical. Perhaps it is just an 'initial agreement' or a 'working arrangement',