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ALEXOLIVA6
Ch.20CantheStateBeJustifiedandMillsTheRacialContract.pptxChapter 20
How Can the State Be Justified? and Mills’s The Racial Contract
© 2018 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.
Positions
The state is justified because we need it for a good life and noble actions.
The state is justified because everyone wants to be protected by the sovereign.
The state is justified by the social contract, which guarantees equality.
The state is justified because it ensures the greatest aggregate happiness.
© 2018 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.
The State of Nature
No political authority
No one to make and enforce laws
No laws against stealing, cheating, threatening
People have to rely on their own judgments and powers
A war of all against all (Hobbes)
People cannot live together peacefully
© 2018 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.
The Social Contract
Justification of political authority
Need to show that we all have reasons to accept a common political authority
Argument
We all desire peace because we all desire happiness.
In the state of nature, there can be no peace.
A sovereign can keep the peace.
So we all have good reasons to accept the authority of the state.
© 2018 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.
Anarchist Arguments
Hobbes overstates the dangers in the state of nature.
People are capable of cooperation in a stateless society.
A political authority imposes greater dangers than a state of nature.
So not everyone has good reasons to accept the authority of the state.
© 2018 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.
5
Varieties of Anarchism
Marx
The state is needed to serve the interests of the dominant social class.
Utilitarian
Justification of the state needs to be in terms of total human happiness.
Not in terms of everyone having a good reason
Natural rights
The state automatically violates our rights.
We have to actually agree to "hire" the political authority.
Not enough to say that we each have good reasons to do so
© 2018 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.
6
Limited Authority
Argument
We do need political authorities.
We also need to prevent them from abusing their power.
We have no good reasons to accept unlimited political authority
So we need political institutions as well as authority.
Constitution, separation of powers, and so on
© 2018 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.
The Racial Contract: Summary
MiMills argues that racism is the most important political system of recent global history.
© 2018 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.
What is the Racial Contract?
"White supremacy is the unnamed political system that has made the modern world what it is today."
Racial Contract
Not a social contract between all the people, but instead only between "the people who really are people ('we the white people')"
Racial Contract vs. ideal social contract
The Racial Contract is "more revealing of the real character of the world we are living in."
© 2018 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.
White Supremacy
Who benefits from the Racial Contract?
"All whites are beneficiaries of the Contract, though some whites are not signatories to it."
"The Racial Contract establishes a racial polity, a racial state, and a racial judicial system, where the status of whites and nonwhites is clearly demarcated, whether by law or by custom."
© 2018 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.
Discussion Questions
What do you think life would be like in the state of nature? Do you agree with Hobbes? Why or why not?
What is the purpose of the state? Do you agree with Aristotle, Hobbes, or Locke? Why or why not?
What kinds of rights do you think ought to be protected by the state? Would your answer be different if you grew up in a different country?
© 2018 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.
