Hobbes and Engels

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They would have to transfer power to some sovereign state (‘the Leviathan’) which could make an agreement stick by having the authority to maintain order and use force against all lawbreakers

Slide 10

Hobbes’ conclusion

Government is necessary if :

People are not to live in a state of nature

People are to pursue individual happiness

People are to engage in industry and commerce

People are to sleep safely in their beds

Slide 11

Engels’ question: What are the origins of the state?

Assumptions:

Before the development of private property there was no need for a state

People lived in cooperative groups in ‘primitive communism’

N.B. Anthropological evidence seems to support Engels’ not Hobbes’s assumptions

Slide 12

Engels (1820-95) on the state

Like Hobbes, Engels’ views the state as necessary for social order

However, for Engels the state´s role is different

It creates social order by regulating conflict between competing classes

The state functions to benefit the whole of the ruling class by maintaining the status quo at the expense of the ruled

Slide 13

How do Marx and Engels define classes?

Classes are by their relation to the means of production:

Owners and controllers of the means of production ( ‘bourgeoisie’ )

Non-owners of the means of production who have ‘nothing to sell but their labour power’ (‘proletariat’)

Slide 14

How the state produces social order

It represents the interests of the ruling the bourgeoisie as against the proletariat through:

laws, coercion, force, ideology, religion, education, mass media, social division,

individualism, consumerism, competition

Slide 15

Under communism, however

The state will ‘wither away’

Production will take place to meet the needs of everyone rather than to make profits for a ruling minority

Cooperation will prevail

No need for war (nor locking your door)

Slide 16

Conclusions

Hobbes sees the state as representing everyone’s interests, it is therefore an agency for peace

Engels sees the state as representing the interests of the ruling class, it is therefore a tool in class conflict