Day 77- Q 1.What is ‘Hobbes’s Social Contract Theory’? Does if form the philosophical basis of modern day governance? Critically examine.

1. What is ‘Hobbes’s Social Contract Theory’? Does if form the philosophical basis of modern day governance? Critically examine. 

हॉब्स का सामाजिक अनुबंध सिद्धांत क्या है? क्या यह आधुनिक समय के शासन का दार्शनिक आधार बनता है? समालोचनात्मक जांच करें।

Introduction:

Hobbes’s Social Contract Theory is based on the idea of egoism.

As per Hobbes when human beings are created they are in the state of nature. In this state, each person would have a right or license to do everything in the world. This, Hobbes argues, would lead to a war of all against all. So in order to avoid it, people accede to a social contract and establish a civil society. 

As per Hobbes, society is a population beneath a sovereign authority, to whom all individuals in that society unconditionally feed some rights for the sake of the protection of their remaining rights. Any power exercised by this authority cannot be resisted because the protector’s sovereign power derives from individuals, surrendering their own sovereign power for protection. 

The individuals are thereby the authors of all decisions made by the sovereign.

Body

It does form the philosophical basis of modern day governance 

• As per Hobbes, if the leviathan or sovereign power violated its own responsibility to protect its member of the society in its charge, that society could then find itself another sovereign to rule it. This is done in modern day by the power of ballet.
• Hobbes’s theory set the foundation of modern welfare state. 

It does not form the philosophical basis of modern day governance 

• Rousseau made fundamental change in ‘Hobbes’s Social Contract Theory’. What is right and what is wrong should be decided by the emotion and conscience of person and not sovereign. This idea reverberates in the modern day governance. 
• There is no concept of ‘natural right’ in ‘Hobbes’s Social Contract Theory’. This is latter added by John Locke.
• Concepts like “civil disobedience in democracy” does not get justified by Hobbes’s Social Contract Theory’. 

Conclusion

Hobbes’s Social Contract Theory may not form the philosophical basis of modern day governance entirely. However it laid the foundation for the modern day robust democracy.