Contract, Gender, and the Emergence of the Civil-Military Distinction

2020 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 416-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Parsons
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Natural Rights ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Political Obligation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Military

AbstractThis paper examines the social contract theories of Grotius, Hobbes, Pufendorf, and Locke, highlighting the failure of their contractarian defenses of the military and military service. In order to ground the duties of military service, each theorist presumes a chivalric gender order wherein men as men are expected to be willing to sacrifice themselves as violent instruments for the sake of their families and communities. While Grotius, Hobbes, and Pufendorf use the contract method to defend absolute, or near absolute, political authority wherein subject's primary political obligation is to serve the sovereign in war upon command, Locke uses the contract method to create a liberal political order that preserves the natural rights of subjects. Nevertheless, Locke maintains the commitment to self-sacrificial military service. In Locke, then, the military is peeled away from liberal civil society and we see the first statement of the civil-military distinction that persists today.

Hypothetical Consent and Political Legitimacy

1998 ◽  
pp. 232-238
Author(s):  
Cynthia Stark
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Political Obligation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hypothetical Consent

A commonly accepted criticism of the social contract approach to justifying political authority targets the notion of hypothetical consent. Hypothetical contracts, it is argued, are not binding; therefore hypothetical consent cannot justify political authority. I argue that although hypothetical consent may not be capable of creating political obligation, it has the power to legitimate political arrangements.

scholarly journals ‘The Days of their Heedless Power Were Over and Done’: Dynamics of Power in the Military Structures of the Precolonial Asante State, 1874–1900

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Manuel J. Manu-Osafo
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
The State ◽  
Coercive Power ◽  
The Social ◽  
Armed Resistance ◽  
Standing Army ◽  
The Military

Abstract The British surprisingly faced no military resistance when they captured Asante in 1896. Previous works have focused on the agency of actors like Prempe and Frederick Hodgson to explain why. This paper, in contrast, approaches this epoch in Asante history from the context of the sociopolitical power structure within which the precolonial Asante state operated. It asserts that Asante's independence was contingent on having a strong military. But since it had no standing army, the state used Asante's ‘social contract’ to coerce its subjects into ad hoc armies to meet military threats. Starting from the 1874 Sagrenti War, however, the state disregarded the social contract. This unleashed a series of events that undermined the state's power to coerce Asantes into military service. The article posits further that this erosion of the state's coercive power ultimately prevented it from countering the British with armed resistance in 1896 to maintain independence.

Critical Times for the Social Contract

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-40
Author(s):  
Charles Devellennes
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Contracts ◽  
Political Upheaval ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Fundamental Challenge ◽  
Political Turmoil ◽  
Critical Times

This chapter proposes a theory of the social contract, in the context of the gilets jaunes. This theory is detailed in the five chapters that follow. The theory proposed here is that the movement itself is best understood as a fundamental challenge to the existing social contract in France — and by extension to other social contracts throughout the world — and its history is not limited to the months of political turmoil it engendered in France or even to the past couple of years of political upheaval in the wider world, but it poses a challenge to the very future of political order. A rethinking of the social contract is necessary given this crisis, and framing the present political turmoil in philosophical terms will help shed some light on the opportunities for change that are arising, in part thanks to the movement.

Contractarian Business Ethics: Credentials and Design Criteria

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 1337-1355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Wempe
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Choice Situation ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
The Social ◽  
Stakeholder Model ◽  
Practical Guidance

Contractarian business ethics (CBE) is in great vogue in the present study of corporate morality. Its stated ambition is to provide better practical guidance than the more general ethical theories of business ethics, such as Kantianism, pragmatism, utilitarianism, virtue ethics or the stakeholder model. But how good is this new trend in business ethics theorizing? This article aims to assess CBE's credentials as a social contract argument. For this purpose, it embarks on a comparative analysis of the use of the social contract model in two earlier domains: political authority and social justice. Building on this comparison, it then develops four criteria for any future CBE. To apply the social contract model properly to the domain of corporate morality, it should be: (1) self-disciplined, i.e. not aspire to results beyond what the contract model can realistically establish; (2) argumentative, i.e. provide principles that are demonstrative results of the contractarian method; (3) task-directed, i.e. it should be clear what the social contract thought-experiment is intended to model; and (4) domain-specific, i.e. the contractarian choice situation should be tailored to the defining problems of corporate morality.

scholarly journals A CONTROVERSA RELAÇÃO DE J.-J. ROUSSEAU COM A REPÚBLICA DE GENEBRA

Sapere Aude ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 157-171
Author(s):  
Vital Francisco Celestino Alves
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Central Axis ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Republic

Na filosofia de Jean-Jacques Rousseau encontramos diversos elogios a modelos políticos oriundos da Antiguidade (Esparta e Roma), assim como outros elogios à República de Genebra. A esse último modelo, o pensador dedica a obra Discurso sobre a origem e os fundamentos da desigualdade entre os homens. Entretanto, até que ponto se pode afirmar que a ordenação política genebrina influenciou e contribuiu para a formação do pensamento político de Rousseau? Tendo essa questão como eixo central e objetivando produzir uma reflexão sobre a Genebra de Rousseau, o presente artigo pretende: primeiro, descrever como era a ordem política genebrina; segundo, tratar da relação entre Rousseau e Genebra; e, por último, correlacionar a posição que ocupa a cidade natal do autor com os seus escritos políticos apresentados na Dedicatória e no Contrato social e examinar a consistência das três principais linhas interpretativas que relacionam Genebra à filosofia política de Rousseau.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Rousseau. República de Genebra. Relação.ABSTRACTIn the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau we find several compliments to political models coming from Antiquity (Sparta and Rome), as well as other compliments to the Republic of Geneva. To this last model, the thinker dedicates the work Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men. However, to what extent can one affirm that the political order of Geneva influenced and contributed to the formation of Rousseau's political thought? With this question as the central axis and aiming to produce a reflection on Rousseau's Geneva, the present article aims to: first, describe the Genevan political, second, deal with Rousseau's relationship with Geneva, and, finally, correlate the position the author's hometown occupies with his political writings presented in the Dedication and the Social Contract and examine the consistency of the three main interpretive lines relating Geneva to Rousseau's political philosophy.KEYWORDS: Rousseau. Republic of Geneva. Relationship.

scholarly journals Understanding the Praetorian Rule of Fatah al-Sisi in Egypt

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-145
Author(s):  
Arshad
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
The State ◽  
State System ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Military ◽  
Gamal Abdel Nasser ◽  
Party State

Gamal Abdel Nasser established the praetorian regime in 1952. Nasser ruled Egypt with the ‘party-state’ system to maintain the ‘social contract’ between the state and the Egyptians. The government thrived on the patrimonial relationship and de-politicization of the population. The ‘Egyptian upheaval’ in 2011 sought the protection of individuals’ rights, equality, and freedom against the military-led praetorian regime. A short-democratic experiment led to the arrival of Islamist majority rule in Egypt under the leadership of President Mohammed Morsi. The liberal-secular oppositions and the military removed President Morsi because Islamists failed to achieve the protesters’ aspirations. Egyptians supported the military’s rule that led to the election of General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi as President of Egypt. Fatah al-Sisi shifted the dynamics of government from ‘party-state’ to ‘ruler-arbiter’ praetorian rule that centralized the authority and power under his leadership through military domination to counter the Islamists and revolutionary aspirations. The research explains the causality behind the Egyptian military's intervention in politics, structuring of the praetorian regime in Egypt; the return of military praetorianism after the removal of President Hosni Mubarak; the rise of the Sisi as ‘ruler-arbiter’ and its implications on the democratization process. The paper’s method is explanatory to study the ‘structural’ (military) and ‘agential’ (Sisi’s rule) factors to determine the causes of establishing the praetorian ‘ruler-arbiter’ type Sisi’s regime. The approach to examine the ruler-arbiter phenomenon is the ‘actor-centric’ instead of the ‘mechanistic’ to understand the praetorian rule in Egypt. The research finds that the rise of the ‘ruler-arbiter’ regime under the leadership of the Sisi, caused by the military-established praetorian authority and President Sisi's choices and decisions, led to the failure of the democratization in Egypt.

scholarly journals Rousseau, Rio, and the Green Economy

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2(54)) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
The Social

The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau emerges as the most compelling and seminal piece of political theory. It explores legitimate political order in the context of classical republicanism. This paper delves into the following questions around Rousseau’s thesis: What would Rousseau make of the contemporary multilateralist surveillance regime, gridlocked in key areas that have direct links with human security? How would he square with a society that seems to be at odds with the nature– society equilibrium that he staunchly advocated for? Will Rousseau be able to lift today’s generation out of the collective myopia that focuses on individualism as the gateway to a prosperous future?

Investor rights as nonsense—on stilts

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron James
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
Natural Rights ◽  
Foreign Investors ◽  
Social Purpose ◽  
For Profit ◽  
The Social

To invest in a foreign country is to take a gamble for profit. To take a gamble for profit is to assume the risk of suffering a loss, with a certain upshot for one’s rights. In assuming the risk voluntarily, one forgoes any claim to be compensated, should one’s luck go south. Investor treaties increasingly grant foreign investors a right to be compensated for losses due to new state regulation. This chapter argues that certain ideas of “investor rights” exhibit a confusion about the very nature of an investment and about the social relations of international trade that give risk-taking its social purpose. The argument develops both utilitarian and social contract theory positions, and challenges appeals to investor natural rights, especially natural promissory rights.

Officers of the Russian Imperial army as part of the confrontation sides of the Tambov rebellion of 1920–1921

2020 ◽  
pp. 234-244
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Kanishchev
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sufficient Degree ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Military

We consider a new aspect of the well-studied themе, related to objective circumstances and subjective motives for choosing a life position in the Civil war: the entry of former officers of the Russian Imperial army into the ranks of the Soviet or rebel armed forces. First of all, contradic-tions in information about the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary military service of a se-lected circle of persons are revealed. With a sufficient degree of accuracy, 16 former officers who became the leaders of the suppression of the “Antonovshchina” in 1920–1921 and a maximum of 23 rebel commanders from the ranks of officers of the “old” army are identified. Differences of the social and professional image of the commanders of the opposing sides are established. Among the Soviet commanders, career officers from different classes prevailed, including 5 peasants (only 1 – Russian), of non-Tambov origin, who entered the region no earlier than 1917. On the contrary, among the rebel military leaders, all, except for one tradesman, came from the peasant class (only 3 were not from the Tambov Governorate). However, the loyalty of some former rebel commanders to their political leadership was low. Therefore, the study specially analyzes the “psychology of betrayal” of such people who went over to the side of the Soviet troops. The military leaders of the suppression of the Tambov rebellion, who came from the officer environment, made a choice in favor of Soviet power in 1917–1918 and by 1920 they repeatedly showed loyalty to the “workers’ and peasants’ state”. However, for the time being, this state recognized the devotion of, in principle, alien to it “gold-chasers”. In the 1930s almost all officers who took part in the suppression of the Tambov rebellion became victims of political repression.

Thomas Hobbes's Materialism, Language, and the Possibility of Politics

2008 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Dungey
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
First Principles ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Obligation ◽  
English Civil War ◽  
The Social

AbstractThomas Hobbes sought a reconstruction of philosophy, ethics, and politics that would end, once and for all, the bitter disputes that led to the English Civil War. This reconstruction begins with the first principles of matter and motion and extends to a unique account of consent and political obligation. Hobbes intended to produce a unified philosophical system linking his materialist account of human nature to his moral and political theory. However, his materialism gives rise to a set of perceptions, imagination, and desires that contribute to the chaos of the state of nature. The sort of person that emerges from Hobbes's materialist anthropology is unlikely to be able to make the necessary agreements about common meaning and language that constitute the ground of the social contract. Therefore, Hobbes's materialism frustrates the very purpose for which it is conceived.

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