government theory

Chapter 47: An Overview of Patriarchal Political Power and Despotic Power

Chapter 47: An Overview of Patriarchal Political Power and Despotic Power

169.Although I have previously spoken of these powers separately, I believe that the major errors in the theory of government in recent years have been caused by confusing these different powers, so here I discuss them together. Still appropriate.

170.First, Fatherhood, or parental authority, is nothing but the power of parents to govern and govern their children for their welfare, until they have attained to the exercise of reason, or to a state of knowledge.In that state we may presume that they are capable of understanding the maxim by which they are supposed to regulate themselves, whether that be natural law or the domestic law of their country—and by "competent" I mean something like The free men who live under it know it as well.God has endowed parents with an innate love for their children, and it follows that God intended only to help, train, and protect their offspring, and not to make this rule a severe and arbitrary one.But, as has been proved above, there is no reason to think that this power can be extended to give parents the power of life and death over their children at any time, just as they have no power over others; When an adult, parents can not use any excuse to prove that this patriarchal right should also make him subject to the will of his parents, which exceeds the lifelong obligation of children to respect and support their parents because of their parental upbringing.From this it follows that patriarchy, though a natural government, can never be extended to political ends and jurisdictions.Fatherhood cannot interfere with the property of the children, which can only be handled by themselves.

171.Second, political power is the surrender by each individual of all his powers in the state of nature to society, and society to a ruler it has placed over itself, with an express or tacit trust that this power should be To benefit them and protect their property.Since this power is possessed by every man in the state of nature, and is committed by him to society as far as it can secure him, he should be protected by such means as he thinks fit and nature permits. property, and to punish others for violations of the laws of nature, in order (as his reason can judge) to best protect himself and the rest of mankind.Therefore, when every man possesses this power in the state of nature, since its purpose and measure are to protect all the members of the society, that is, the whole mankind, when it is possessed by magistrates, it can have no other purpose. or measure, except to protect the life, rights, and property of the members of society; as life and property should be protected as far as possible, it cannot be an absolute and arbitrary power over the life and property of the people.It merely makes laws upon them, with such powers of punishment as to remove some parts for the protection of the whole, and remove only those parts so corrupt as to threaten the life and safety of the whole; punishments are illegal.And this power originates only in contracts, agreements, and the mutual consent of the people who make up society.

172.Third, despotic power is an absolute and arbitrary power that one person has over another person, and it can take another person's life at will.It is not a power conferred by nature, for nature makes no such distinctions among men.Nor is it a power conferred by a contract, because a man does not have such arbitrary power over his own life, and of course he cannot give another person such power over his life.It is simply the result of the aggressor giving up his right to life when he puts himself at war with another.

Since he abandoned the reason God gave to human beings (the reason as the criterion between human beings), broke away from the common constraints (making human beings united into a group and society), and abandoned the road of peace revealed by reason, he vainly tried to use The power of war to achieve his unrighteous purpose of dominion over another, turning from man to beast, arbitrarily using the power of the beast as the criterion of his right, so that he will be executed by the victim and with the victim. The rest of the law destroys as any other wild beast or poisonous vermin, because man cannot live with them, and cannot be safe while with them, so only captives taken in just and lawful wars are subject to despotic power , this power neither originates in a contract, nor can any contract be made, it is only a continuation of the state of war.Since he cannot fulfill any conditions, it is impossible to make a contract with a person who has no master over his own life.As soon as he is allowed to be master of his own life, the despotic and arbitrary power of his master ceases to exist.He who has mastery over himself and his life has the right to seek to preserve it; therefore, slavery ceases as soon as the contract is made.As long as a man negotiates terms with his captives, he relinquishes his absolute power and terminates the state of war.

173.Nature gives parents the first power, patriarchy, to act for the benefit of their children while they are minors, as a remedy for their incapacity and ignorance in the administration of their own property (it must be said that what I here and elsewhere call property , both refer to the property of people in their physical, mental and material aspects).Voluntary agreements give rulers a second, political power, to secure their possession and use of property for the benefit of their subjects.The loss of the rights of man gives masters a third power, despotic power, through which they work for their own benefit and enslave those who have been deprived of all property.

174.Whoever examines the different origins, extents, and purposes of these several powers will clearly see that patriarchal power is inferior to that of rulers, and rulers' powers are inferior to despotic power; , whoever controls it, is by no means a civil society, for it is as alien to civil society as slavery is to property.Patriarchal power exists only so long as the child is not yet of age to manage his property; political power exists only when men enjoy property at their own disposal; and despotic power is over those who have no property at all. that power.

(End of this chapter)

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