Origins of the State

Force Theory

• A strong person or group controlled an area forced all within it to submit to their rule

• That rule established population, territory, sovereignty, and government

• How would a person or group gain control of an area?

Evolutionary Theory

• Primitive family where one person was the head and therefore the “government” was the beginning of the state

• Nuclear families became extended families and eventually a clan

• Clans became tribes and when they settled onto a defined territory-the state was born

• Why did humans begin to settle into defined territories?

Divine Right Theory

• Accepted in the West from the 15th to the 18th centuries

• Belief that God invented the state & gave certain people through birth a “divine right” to rule

• To disobey the ruler was treason and was going against God’s will

• Divine right was also practiced in China, Egypt, Central and South America and Japan

Social Contract Theory

• Developed in the 17th and 18th centuries• Hobbes- People had complete freedom, but

individuals were only as safe as their physical strength and intelligence could make them

• Individuals agreed to give up some of their freedoms to protect themselves and each other

• Theories of Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau were used by our founding fathers in the creation of the United States

Hobbes• Leviathan• Discusses the need for government

• “In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

• Do you agree with Hobbes? Do we need government?

Locke

• Open your book to Page 11 and complete the reading and questions

Rousseau

• The Social Contract• "Man was born free, and he is

everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they."

• What does this quote mean to you?