Creating Sovereignty: The Social Contract, Religion and Political Friendship

• In Event: Theories of Sovereignty: Bodin, Hobbes, Mazzini, and Tocqueville

Abstract

Authority in the West historically occurred along two axes, a vertical one between man and God—religious authority—and a horizontal one among people (including between rulers and other people), or political authority. This paper examines, first, the role and impact of the social contract tradition (or traditions) in eliminating the vertical, religious authority, arguing that in so doing, social contract traditions not only removed one axis of authority but fundamentally altered the nature of the other, political authority they left behind. While this move removed the role of the Church from unduly coercive control over citizens’ lives, thereby permitting greater pluralism, it also resulted in a world in which affairs are increasingly politicized because there is no other axis around which to organize or understand social life. This creates greater challenges for the pluralistic societies that other thrive in the absence of vertical, religious axes of authority, as stakes become untenably high in politics and law, thereby increasing polarization. The second portion of the paper therefore proposes a re-examination of the ancient concept of political friendship in the modern West, particularly as it is mediated by Alexis de Tocqueville, to provide a richer, more multi-layered context in which to negotiate and enact political life.

Author

• Karen Taliaferro, Arizona State University