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?