How Does Hobbes Have A Perfect Government

In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes writes about the construction of a commonwealth and expresses what he believes are the essential characteristics of a perfect government. Hobbes contends that a strong national government can help citizens escape the brutal state of nature. In doing so, people must mutually give up certain powers and freedoms and delegate them to a centralized power, thus providing the basis of a social contract. In return for the populace giving up certain rights, this established power would provide protection and establish order (Hobbes, 17.13). Curiously though, Hobbes contends that a social contract applies solely to the citizenry (Hobbes, 18.4). Stated another way, the established power in which the citizens defer power to is not beholden to the same social contract as the people. In the following paper, I will address why a recognized government must be beholden to the same contract as the citizenry. Hobbes lived most of his life in the 17th century, a century that witnessed significant civil unrest in England. Leviathan was Hobbes’ attempt to convey what he believed was the perfect government, a government that would avoid the state of nature from becoming a reality. The ideal government, according to Hobbes, should be headed by
There are striking similarities between Hobbes’ state of nature and civil war. Civil wars are largely characterized by brutality, disorder, and widespread death. These characterizations of civil war are similar to Hobbes’ contention of what the state of nature looks like: brutal, disordered, rampant with fear, and full of self-interested people capable of murder (Hobbes, 13.9). Yet, even though Hobbes witnessed what can happen when a monarch rules without any covenants with the public, he did not deem it necessary for a monarch’s political and societal policies to be held formally responsible by the