Preliminary communication
THE KING IS THE PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE IS THE KING: HOBBES FACING DEMOCRACY
Luka Ribarević
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Leaving aside Hobbes’s ideological preferences in the conflict regarding the
structure of the English political body in the 17th century, the text deals with
the way in which democracy is valued in his key theoretical-political works.
The author does this on two levels: first, he examines the status of democracy
within the framework of Hobbes’s doctrine of state forms. In spite of some of
its shortcomings, in none of the three variants of his science of politics does
Hobbes deem that there is a rational justification for discarding democracy as
one of three equally ranked forms of state. Second, the author inquires into
the more general thesis of the democratic character of Hobbes’s understanding
of the state regardless of its form. Various elements of Hobbes’s science
of politics are thereby taken into account: legal equality of parties to the social
contract, their status as authors of sovereign power, their freedom as subjects
and the duties of the sovereign. The analysis thereof points to the necessity of
a differentiated answer to the question regarding the democratic character of
Hobbes’s theory of state.
Keywords
Thomas Hobbes; "Leviathan"; "De Cive"; "Elements of Law"; state; sovereignty; freedom; political representation; democracy
Hrčak ID:
81912
URI
Publication date:
14.5.2012.
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