The good citizen

For one to be a good citizen, there are certain expectations a person must follow to achieve this goal. While many people have their own ideas of what makes a good citizen, there is little consensus to exactly what this would be. Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in their books The Leviathan and The Social Contract, create a system of political governing where the citizen plays a certain role and has certain expectations to carry out this role for the governmental system to work properly. In this paper, I will discuss what each of the men believed to be the role of the average citizen to support the state. Both men have quite different opinions in regards to the roles of citizens. While both are good theories, and create a strong case for government, neither is applicable in the real world because what is demanded of the citizen in these systems of government is based on certain assumptions.

The assumptions made by these men, both good and bad, are not evident in the every day person. Thomas Hobbes believes that all men are egocentric, by nature. This is to say that men spend their whole lives looking for what makes the happiest as an individual. Even when men socialize, it is not for the benefit of building str

. . .

View the whole essay, without interruption

While the citizens in this state are allowed to fulfill self-interest, they are not free to pursue their interests via the state. “The only way to erect such a common power is, to confrere all their power and strength upon one man or upon one assembly of men, which may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto one will.

Before the social contract to even begin, man must find others willing to go along with it. The state is founded on a common belief system held my all the people in the new commonwealth.

There is one instance when a citizen may refuse to obey the state. Hobbes also argues citizens must follow the state’s laws because they are all good laws. Rousseau’s idea of government is more of a utopian idea and not really executable in the real world.

Only in a system when a man is free to express his interests has an individual and not that of an overriding group, can a man be truly free. The collective of these citizens then forms the sovereign. A majority opinion allows for individuals to enact their in interests. Hobbes argues that man is self- centered in nature because he desires power. This distrust, however, is overcome by the fear of death. If the state is no longer able to enforce the law, the reasons citizens agreed to the contract are gone. The individuals, which make up the community would give up their identity as individuals, and see themselves first and foremost as citizens of the state. A citizen is a person who is willing and able to participate in the state.

Approximate Word count = 2212
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.