What was Hobbes' view on the source of government authority?

Question

I know he believed in absolute monarchy but did he still believe in divine right or..???

Answer 1

Hobbes believed that government gets its authority from the consent of the people.

He says that in the state of nature, people are naturally competitive, distrustful, and vain. As a result, we don't trust other people not to hurt us, since we have a right to ensure our own survival no matter what (even if that means killing someone else or stealing from them).

Suppose two people make a promise not to harm each other. How does one know that the other will keep his promise? He doesn't. What happens if the other doesn't keep his promise? Nothing, because no one can enforce this promise.

Enter the social contract.

Suppose these same two people, in order to assure that the other will keep their promise, transfer some of their rights to a third-party, who is not party to the contract, but will enforce it.

In the state of nature, Hobbes says men have a right to do anything necessary to serve our own interests. If a thief comes to steal our dinner, we have a right to kill him.

In the social contract, we give up that right to the third-party (the government), whose job it is to protect us from having our dinner stolen and protect the thief from being killed.

Now the government has authority. We willing gave up our natural rights with the understanding that the government would protect us. Hence, the government gets its authority from us. There is no divine right involved.

So why do we trust the government, you ask? Simple. According to human nature, the sovereign will act in his own best interest. It is in his best interest to keep the citizens well-off so they will not want to rise up against him. He wants to maintain power.

You bring up the issue of absolute monarchy. Since you don't give a lot of detail in your question, I'll assume you also are unsure about why Hobbes wanted a single leader and answer that for you, just in case.

A single sovereign is best because he can make decisions quickly and effectively. In order to protect us, the sovereign will need to make sure things get done in a timely fashion.
The sovereign must also have absolute power in order to enforce the contract and protect us. Spreading out power results in less protection.

Answer 2

I think Hobbes' view on the source of govt. authority as that George W Bush is King and the Ultimate Decider for the world; the New American Century is God's divine gift to all intelligently designed, republikan-faith-based mankind and, well, ......if we dont know it, then we must belong to the democrat party.

Answer 3

no divine right, just fear from chaos and war leads people to take the monster that's coming from beyond the sea, Leviathan, to be the ruler.