Social Contract: How much does our individual freedom should the state have authority/control over?
The Greeks: Plato
Assumptions
The Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes
Everyone has a natural calling/purpose that they are compelled to follow
Soldiers
Guardians
Workers
Protect society
Govern/Lead society
Against ambition, upward or downward mobility, and doing something populistic or because one possesses power
Philosopher King (Guardians know Philosophy)
Philosophers understand what life is all about and hence can make good decisions for policy
Force-fitting of roles
Unhappiness and injustice in society
Assumptions
Humans are rational, power-hungry
War against All, where strong and dominant individuals are power holders
Resources are finite
Otherwise, there would be constant chases and conflict in society. Life if also short and brutish.
As people yearn to avoid that dreadful lifestyle, they will live under a sovereign
Two Treaties of Government: John Locke
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Provision of order and predictability through law enactment and enforcement
Power Imbalance (Horizontal contract)
Individuals give up all their rights to the sovereign
Sovereigns are not obligated to the people
Examples
Feudalistic Society
Men are obedient
Orderly Political Society
Medieval
Monarchies
Divided into smaller states/cities/provinces ruled by aristocrats
King controls the country
Power is not contested
Assumptions
Men are free and equal
Humans are good and social creatures
Some are evil
Most keep their promises and honour obligations
Only punish those who are evil doers to return society to its natural state of peace
Everyone pursues upward mobility and passions
All power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one has more power than another in the first place
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Who is the leader?
God is the master of them all
Everyone will agree on conferring the government power
Do manual labour for society