Original scientific paper

HOBBES' THEORY OF AUTHORISATION I

Luka Ribarević ; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

In contrast with earlier formulations of Hobbes’ science of politics, the theory of sovereignty in Leviathan is expounded on a completely new legal basis. It is the theory of authorisation, whereby the fundamental political relation between sovereign and subject is conceived as a representative relation. This work shows that, up to Leviathan and within the conceptual framework of state theory, sovereignty was defined as might and authority, but not as power. The missing element was legal substance, without which both might and authority are insufficient to make possible permanent abandonment of the natural condition. The theory of authorisation is precisely the solution to the problem of constituting the state as a single legal person interconnecting the sovereign and the subjects. At the core of the theory lies the concept of person, which covers various modalities of the representative-represented relation. It is through the concept of artificial person that Hobbes shows in what way the disconnected multitude of individuals can be transformed into an operative political unity. This comes about as a result of the sovereign being given authorisation by future subjects, who pledge to accept his will as their own in matters related to preservation of peace. Thus they can be legally treated as a single legal person, to which the will of the sovereign is ascribed as its own will. By accepting the will of the sovereign – the artificial person of their representative – as their own, the subjects themselves become an artificial person: the state.

Keywords

theory of authorisation; person; social contract; sovereignty; sovereign; subjects; state; Leviathan; Hobbes

Hrčak ID:

41515

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/41515

Publication date:

9.10.2009.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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