What Justifies the State?

•  Social Contract theory raises issues about why we need to have the State at all and about the limits of political obligation

• Hobbes: the State removes us from the terror of the state of nature
• Locke: the State provides stability in protecting our property

• Hume: there is no social contract, no agreement we voluntarily and knowingly make

• Rawls: justice is possible only in a state based on rules or structures determined under a "veil of ignorance"

• Social/civil rules should protect equal rights and permit inequalities only if:
• A. Everyone benefits from inequalities
• Everyone has equal access to opportunities
• Communitarians ("republicans"): political interactions are natural, necessary for human development

• Aristotle, Hegel: like the family, the State is necessary for a person to achieve freedom in relation to others. The State is the basis of civility and cultivating individuals

• Liberalism: let people exercise their rights and develop their own values

• The problem with communitarians is that they fail to see how the "public good" oppresses the development of diverse views (e.g., multiculturalism)