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    Hobbes demonstrates that the sovereign's self-interest st... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The more completely authority is vested in one man, the worse off everyone is, including the despot himself.

    Hobbes demonstrates that the sovereign's self-interest structurally aligns with subjects' survival, since a dead or impoverished population cannot sustain sovereign power.

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    1 reason for
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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.A sovereign requires tax revenue, labor, and military recruits; these flow only from a living, functioning population.
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    • 2.Hobbes's logic applies to long-term power stability: short-term extraction gains vanish when subjects die or flee.
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    • 3.Even self-interested rulers benefit from basic order, property rights, and non-predation that enable population survival.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Sovereigns can profit enormously from short-term predation even if it destabilizes long-term power; incentives misalign.
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    • 2.Historical despots maintained power while impoverishing subjects through slavery, serfdom, and extractive colonialism.
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    • 3.Structural alignment assumes rational calculation, but sovereigns often pursue ideology, revenge, or prestige over survival logic.
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    Democracy & Governance1 linkedConsequentialism1 linked

    Related

    A sovereign requires tax revenue, labor, and military recruits; these flow only ...Even self-interested rulers benefit from basic order, property rights, and non-p...Historical despots maintained power while impoverishing subjects through slavery...Hobbes's logic applies to long-term power stability: short-term extraction gains...
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    Sovereigns can profit enormously from short-term predation even if it destabiliz...Structural alignment assumes rational calculation, but sovereigns often pursue i...The more completely authority is vested in one man, the worse off everyone is, i...

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    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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    1 edit