66 Political Theory
operate within political systems, networks of relationships usually involving
parties, elections, pressure groups and the media, through which
government can both respond to popular pressures and exercise political
control.
Why have government?
People in every part of the world recognize the concept of government and
would, in the overwhelming majority of cases, be able to identify
institutions in their society that constitute government. Furthermore, most
people accept without question that government is necessary, assuming
that without it orderly and civilized existence would be impossible.
Although they may disagree about the organization of government and the
role it should play, they are nevertheless convinced of the need for some
kind of government. However, the widespread occurrence of government
and its almost uncritical acceptance worldwide does not in itself prove that
an ordered and just society can only exist through the agency of
government. Indeed, one particular school of political thought is dedicated
precisely to establishing that government is unnecessary, and to bringing
about its abolition. This is anarchism, anarchy literally meaning ‘without
rule’.
The classic argument in favour of government is found in social-contract
theories, first proposed by seventeenth-century philosophers like Thomas
Hobbes (see p. 123) and John Locke (see p. 268). Social-contract theory, in
fact, constitutes the basis of modern political thought. In Leviathan ([1651]
1968), Hobbes advanced the view that rational human beings should
respect and obey their government because without it society would
descend into a civil war ‘of every man against every man’. Social-contract
theorists develop their argument with reference to an assumed or
hypothetical society without government, a so-called ‘state of nature’.
Hobbes graphically described life in the state of nature as being ‘solitary,
poor, nasty, brutish and short’. In his view, human beings were essentially
power-seeking and selfish creatures, who would, if unrestrained by law,
seek to advance their own interests at the expense of fellow humans. Even
the strongest would never be strong enough to live in security and without
fear: the weak would unite against them before turning upon one another.
Quite simply, without government to restrain selfish impulses, order and
stability would be impossible. Hobbes suggested that, recognizing this,
rational individuals would seek to escape from chaos and disorder by
entering into an agreement with one another, a ‘social contract’, through
which a system of government could be established.
Social-contract theorists see government as a necessary defence against
evil and barbarity, based as they are upon an essentially pessimistic view of