Philosophy
Hobbes's Social Contract and the Problem of Political Obligation
Quick fact
Hobbes's Leviathan (1651) justifies absolute sovereignty by arguing that without a common power, life in the state of nature is a war of all against all—even though no one ever literally signs the contract.
Why this is interesting
We obey laws we never signed. So why do we feel bound to follow them?
Read the full explanation
Understanding Hobbes's Social Contract and the Problem of Political Obligation
To understand Hobbes's idea, imagine life before government. He calls this the 'state of nature.' Because resources are scarce and people are roughly equal, everyone fears everyone else. Without a judge, we fight for survival, making life 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.' To escape this misery, rational people agree to lay down their natural freedom and submit to a common ruler—a sovereign—who enforces laws and keeps peace. This agreement is the social contract. Here's the catch: the contract is not between citizens and ruler, but among citizens themselves. In promising each other to obey, we create an absolute sovereign who cannot be punished or removed. Hobbes believes this is the only way to guarantee security.
A deeper explanation
The problem of political obligation is: why should we obey the state? Hobbes's answer is self-interest. In the state of nature, our right to everything means we have a right to nothing, because no one can guarantee it. By contracting, we transfer our rights to a sovereign who use their power to enforce peace. Obligation is thus self-imposed—it arises from our rational decision to prefer security over chaos. This explains why the sovereign's power must be absolute: if the sovereign is weak, someone else will fight for supremacy, risking a return to the state of nature. Therefore, for Hobbes, political obligation is binding even when we dislike a law, because the alternative—anarchy—is always worse. This mechanistic logic grounds the authority of the state in the consent of the governed, but it is a one-time, irreversible consent that subjects us to the sovereign's will.