According to Thomas Hobbes, he defines the Sovereign as the representation of absolute power and unlimited authority whose purpose is to protect the people and make sure that there is peace. Thomas Hobbes argued that the nature of man is in a state that they are happy in and so to achieve this he believed that man should be allowed to exercise his right. Hobbes stated that a sovereign had three distinctive marks; control of the military, it was able to raise money and be in control of religious doctrines. In this paper, we will look at the rights and duties of the sovereign according to Thomas Hobbes.
Thomas Hobbes described natural law as a right of one to preserve themselves. He believed in the natural equality of all men. According to Hobbes political power in the society must be representative and based on the people's consent. The people according to Hobbes had the right to do what they wished to do as long as the law did not prohibit it. Hobbes believed that all men had rights to everything including another man's body. Although he argued that the subjects could give up this freedom to institute a sovereign. Hobbes places a lot of importance on the rule of law. He claimed that the freedom of the people in society was dependent on the silence of the law. Hobbes claimed that a sovereign institute had to be formed to defend the rights of the people. A sovereign also had the duty of solving disputes among the people
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In conclusion, Hobbes declared that moral laws were also termed as divine laws. He believed that the power was always supposed to be in the people's hands and in cases where the sovereign could not make peace then it was supposed to relinquish power to the people for them to make peace through war.