Evolution of the State: From Absolutism to Democracy
Evolution of the State
Absolutist State
Political power is concentrated in the person of the King, who acts as an absolute ruler.
Liberal State
It is based on two principles: the predominance of the Constitution and defending individual rights. It establishes the separation of powers.
Democratic State
It is characterized by two elements: equal rights (legal and political) of all citizens and equal vote.
Social and Democratic State
There is no political equality if there is no economic and social equality. The state must intervene to create wealth, and especially to distribute it equitably. Also called the Welfare State.
Hobbes
State of Nature
Human nature is based on a consideration of the passions that can drag individuals and prevent them from developing the virtues that elevate them, reaching the following conclusion: “Man is a wolf to man.” Unlike other philosophers, Hobbes says that man is an individualistic being by nature. In a state of nature, he is seeking only his selfish pleasure, which can increase his power. He is therefore insatiable, immoral, and without laws that limit his freedom. In fact, he can do everything he wants.
Situation of Nature
For this reason, we find in human nature three causes of discord: competition, distrust, and glory.
Social Contract
The individual waives his rights to his natural power and freedom in exchange for others doing exactly the same. The contract is a contract for both submission and is based on the strength and power of the absolute sovereign.
State
The social pact is made for individuals to enter the sovereign, but the sovereign does not make a pact but is the result of the pact. This has its consequences. The sovereign makes the law and is above it, determines what is just or unjust, good or bad, but he cannot be prosecuted in a natural pact because he has not signed anything.
Locke
State of Nature
It is a state equal to power and reciprocal jurisdiction. All human beings possess certain rights that are natural: freedom, the right to property (which includes property within the proper person, such as existence and health), and private property. Natural rights are not unlimited.
The Pact
The intention to enforce those rights are agreed upon by free men joining society and the creation of authority. According to Locke, when men decide to form a society, they do not give up their sovereign rights by transferring them. Actually, they just give the president the power necessary to protect them.
The Liberal State
From the pact comes the state, but contrary to what happened with Hobbes, the governed are at the service of individuals because they relinquish some of their freedom to protect their rights. If the sovereign does not fulfill the duties for which he has been established, the people retain the right to insurrection and breaking the pact.
Characteristics
Locke introduces power to prevent possible abuses of absolute power, such as the division of powers. There are three types:
- Legislative: Parliament prepares laws.
- Executive: The monarch enforces sanctions in case of non-compliance.
- Federative: Making and breaking alliances.
Rousseau
Hobbes also takes from the same conceptual structure, but like Locke, from a very different vision, and reaching a conclusion totally opposite. Thus, for Rousseau, the State of Nature, far from being a permanent civil war, is characterized by kindness; freedom and equality are involved. Humans live in a kind of original innocence (reflected in the myth of the noble savage) just until the progressive constitution of society, and especially property, leads humans to become selfish and evil. Thus, society, although it is true that it guarantees certain basic needs, also evokes competition between them that ends up corrupting. However, once the original state of innocence is abandoned, it is impossible to go back, and only an agreement among citizens can mitigate the negative consequences that led to the corrupt society. This is the birth and the need for a social contract. This involves the elimination of selfish individualism through the submission of every citizen to the general will, and assembly unanimously. What Rousseau is proposing here is what we currently understand as direct democracy or assembly.