The significance of the notion of administration for Hobbes’s State theory

Authors

  • Miguel León Pérez Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.206.03

Abstract

This article takes as point of departure the Hobbesian distinction, which is especially clear in De Cive, between sovereignty and administration, in order to show how Hobbes’s analysis of the administrative deployment of the state-machine complements his understanding of the state as an artificial person. First, Hobbes’s observations about the administrative deployment of sovereignty are ordered and systematized, making the dialectical tension between the concepts of sovereignty and administration explicit. Afterwards, I analyse how that dialectical tension informs and structures Hobbes’s analysis of the particular circumstances of the English Civil War, and the general theoretical consequences of that analysis are pointed out. Last, I take into consideration that the juridical relationship between sovereignty and administration is analogous in Hobbes’s thought to the theological relation between God as first cause and nature as the order of second causes.

Published

2024-12-11

Issue

Section

ARTICLES