Hobbes was around in the 1600s and was trying to find a way to improve the support of the people for the King in England. Hobbes said that we originally existed in the State of Nature, where there were no laws and everyone was only out for themselves. Basically, all people are greedy and only seek to improve their own lives and their own family’s lives.
If we don’t have an authority to set the laws and to protect us, says Hobbes, then we would live in this state of nature, and most of us would die (or be enslaved, or have our stuff stolen on a regular basis). So, says Hobbes, we give up some of our rights (like taking the law into our own hands and beating the thief) in order to obtain the protection of the sovereign, that wonderful mighty King in Hobbes mind.
The sovereign sets up the laws and regulations, as well as the retribution and consequences, and insures that we are protected both internal to the state and from outside forces. We may not agree with the sovereign at times, but we must stay loyal to the sovereign even if the use of power by him or her seems harsh because King knows best, not us lowly peons. He or she in the wise ruler, we are the subjects.
Then there is Locke. Locke came around a little bit later, once the nobles began seeking more political power (late 1600s). Locke said that in the State of Nature, we use our own labor to make property (i.e.: till the land and get wheat—the land and wheat are ours to use or trade). However, as societies develop, it is often the case that some people till while others may sew clothes. With the division of labor, people contract out their labor and or goods with each other.
In larger groupings of people, there needs to be a political power that oversees and protects these contracts. Yet, this power is not a monarchy, says Locke, it’s The People. In this grand Contract, the people make an agreement with the government that in exchange of some rights (like shooting looters) we will give power to the authority to protect us (government will set the retribution costs of illegal action). We contract with the government to protect us and to provide certain basic needs. The authority lies with the people, and the people give legitimacy to the government.
Ideology
These philosophical ideas form the basis for how we think about government and what kinds of actions government should take. Philosophical beliefs about government explain what we believe government is for—to protect people, provide for certain needs (education, healthcare, etc), make roads, protect the borders, etc. We don’t tend to argue so much on the general ideas of why we have government. Where the disagreement comes from tends to be more on the strategic beliefs about government—how government should act in order to provide for the philosophical aspects—what kind of healthcare, how much education, how much taxation for programs, etc. Thus, those ideologies we know (conservatism, liberalism, communism, socialism) set out the philosophical and strategic beliefs in a way that unites people and stimulates groups to take action.
Changing Voice of the People
Those who first made policy and were the voice of the people are not the same as today. The people who began our country over 200 years ago tended to be white men from Europe. Today, we have a much more diverse population, and the “white European male” is fast becoming the minority. While slavery and subjugated women were originally not always seen as contradictory to freedom, equality and democracy as per the original makers of our country, today such issues are unacceptable.
For thousands of years people have interacted with each other, sometimes in groups and often as larger political entities. When one political actor (state, leader, institution, group, individual) interacts and uses political power over another, the interaction is either accepted or not. In other words, sometimes we see that power as an authoritive political actor with the legitimacy to act or we don’t.
In addition, as time has progressed and we have developed new technologies and more “advanced” forms of civilization, we find the need to have more responsive and involved political institutions. In this section we will consider some of the philosophical foundations for having government, how these ideas are reflected in ideologies, the beliefs we have about government and the kinds of actions it should take, the changing face of “the people” in the US and how this affects our ideological beliefs, and finally the political culture of the US.
Why Have Government?
We often look at two main dudes who laid out the reasoning on why we have governments.
U.S. Political Culture
It is difficult to pinpoint and exact political culture in the US. Our country is so broad and diverse that what is considered a political norm in one area of the country may be quite foreign in another. Four concepts do tend to be long-term and universal: Freedom, Democracy, Equality, and Individualism. This is not to say that we all agree on what these terms mean.
Freedom, for instance, has gone through many changes over the years. While freedom may have meant in the early South the freedom to own people in order to develop economic capability, today people cannot be owned in the US. In addition, while some people believe that the US should provide an equal ability to find “the good life,” these same people may not believe that there should be equal outcome (all people have same standard of living). Even others may believe that equality is simply being equal under the eyes of the law. Democracy is another whole can of worms, while individualism can be taking individual responsibility or insuring individual rights and liberties.
Ultimately, while we may disagree on what kinds of action the government should take in our name, Americans tend to have a general agreement on the role of government and that a liberal democracy is a legitimate form of government. We are not likely to take up arms and seek a different form of government as our forefathers did, but to change it with voting and policy making. How we see government is often influences by our socialization and history, making the years to come in the US interesting as a more diverse population influences political change.
In addition, the increasing diversity of people offers new ways of thinking and new views of politics and society that will influence policies in the future. It’s up to us as to whether we see this as beneficial or detrimental. Ultimately, the ideological beliefs behind political action will be influenced by the changing face of the American citizen.
