Summary of Kavka: Hobbesian moral and political theory -- Adam Brown, BYU Political Science

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Kavka: Hobbesian moral and political theory

Disclaimer. Don't rely on these old notes in lieu of reading the literature, but they can jog your memory. As a grad student long ago, my peers and I collaborated to write and exchange summaries of political science research. I posted them to a wiki-style website. "Wikisum" is now dead but archived here. I cannot vouch for these notes' accuracy, nor can I say who wrote them.

Kavka. 1986. Hobbesian moral and political theory (pages 96-125). Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Hobbes's three premises:

the individually rational decision by each actor leads to a "war of all against all"
state of nature is a prisoner's dilemma leading to anarchy and misery
a central political authority (leviathan) must emerge to limit aggression and bring peace, wealth, security (#3 not discussed much here)

State of nature = "a war of all against all": captured in prisoner's dilemma

Assumptions:

We are death-averse
Concerned about reputations
Forward-looking
We have desires that conflict with others' goals
We have roughly equal natural endowments
We're egoistic (concerned about your own survival over others')
Rational planners
BUT: we vary in one respect: we're either dominators (want power for its own sake) or moderates (want power only to protect myself/my stuff)

Examines several objections/criticisms of Hobbes's model.

Research on similar subjects

Baron: Political action versus voluntarism in social dilemmas and aid for the needy (2 shared tags)
Leighley: Group membership and the mobilization of political participation (2 shared tags)
Feddersen: Rational choice theory and the paradox of not voting (1 shared tags)
Jervis: Cooperation under the security dilemma (1 shared tags)
Kirchgaessner and Schulz: Expected closeness or mobilisation (1 shared tags)
Oye: Explaining cooperation under anarchy (1 shared tags)
Schlozman, Verba, and Brady: Participation's not a paradox (1 shared tags)
Waltz: Theory of international politics (1 shared tags)

Tags

Kavka, Gregory (author) • Political Theory • Anarchy • Collective Action

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