Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan and Power

Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan is considered an early classic of modern political theory and one of the foundational treatises of the American Revolution against Great Britain. Despite majoring in History as an undergraduate, I had never read more than a handful of passages and to now read significant portions of the book has been interesting, to say the least. Having now read what we did, I can say that while I can see some of its influence, I am surprised this book is considered as formative of early American political ideas as it is. There are some ideas introduced that certainly influenced early American political thought, (natural equality of man, inalienable rights, natural laws, and consent of the ruled) but Hobbes appears to define these ideas differently and be making a specific argument through this work. He is declaring his belief in and support of the right of the Stewart dynasty to continue ruling the United Kingdom and his condemnation of the forces of Oliver Cromwell in challenging (and for a time, overthrowing) that rule during and after the English Civil War.

In the first pages (pg. 9-10), Hobbes introduces the metaphor of the state as an artificial person, (which he calls “Leviathan”, “State” and “Common-wealth”) with the various and sundry parts of the state serving as parts of the body. Most interestingly, he confers the role of the soul to that of a state’s sovereign, a term he will define later “…when men agree amongst themselves to submit to some Man, or Assembly of men, voluntarily, on confidence to be protected by him against all others.” (p. 96) But given he repeatedly discusses monarchy when referencing a sovereign; he views only as a king.

The first nine chapters are very much philosophy, as Hobbes provides his definitions of human existence and interaction, good and evil, belief and faith, and so on leading to chapter 10, where we first encounter his views on power. In fact, his first sentence of chapter 10 states, “The Power of a Man (to take it Universally) is his present means, to obtain some future apparent Good. And is either Originall, or Instrumentall.” (p. 48) For Hobbes, there are two types of power: 1) the power of the human body to think and move (Original or Natural); and 2) the power that can be acquired or obtained through exercising natural power such as money, influence, reputation (Instrumental).   The state comes to exist because men mutually decide to grant their powers to an individual or assembly of individuals for their mutual benefit and protection (p. 95).

Further in, Hobbes makes it clear that he believes for the state to truly succeed, the power of the sovereign must be coercive, because without the fear of the a coercive power, men will naturally revert to the state of war in order to protect themselves and their property. (p. 76) Hobbes again discusses coercive power

“…there must be some coercive Power, to compell men equally to the performance of their Covenants, by the terrour of some punishment, greater than the benefit they expect by the breach of their Covenant; … such power there is none before the erection of the Common-wealth.” (p. 79-80)

i.e. the laws of the sovereign must be more punitive than the perceived reward for breaking the law. Later in chapter 17, Hobbes again discusses the necessity of coercive power “And Covenants, without the Sword, are but Words, and of no strength to secure a man at all. …if there be no Power erected, or not great enough for our security; every man will, and may lawfully rely on his own strength and art, for caution against other men” (p. 93)

Hobbes is an unabashed monarchist and strongly believes that a monarch, once ruling, is entitled to do so indefinitely, to include the hereditary transfer of power, if that is the custom of the land (p. 108). He also claims that subjects of the sovereign cannot simply leave the sovereign’s rule (p. 96). A theme he returns to throughout the book is that without some type of sovereign to rule at the consent of the ruled, man’s natural state is war (p. 76) and that the only type of sovereign of those he defines (Monarch, Assembly of Men) consistently able to prevent a return to this natural state of war is a monarch. He also believes that only a monarch can relinquish the power of the monarchy (p. 108). It is my opinion Hobbes believes that a sovereign's power must be coercive and that without this coercive power, the state fails.

Time and again, Hobbes returns to the idea that the state exists at the consent and agreement of all in the state, although once that consent is given, it cannot be revoked only relinquished by the sovereign; that the state must have the means necessary to protect everyone from everyone else, and that the power required to do so must be coercive and absolute.