Elements of Morals / With Special Application of the Moral Law to the Duties of the Individual and of Society and the State

by Paul Janet

We have also seen that man ([p. 52]) has a final right which is the guaranty and the sanction of all others; it is the right of preventing by force every attempt at his rights; to constrain others to respect his rights, and lastly, to punish every violation of his rights. This is what is called the right of self-defense.

79. Public authority.—Man having, as we have just seen, the right of self-defense by opposing force to any attack, possesses, when alone, and far from all human help, this right in all its plenitude. But it is easy to see the dangers and inexpediency of such a right in a society. Each man, in fact, when he meets with opposition to his will and desires, always thinks himself injured in his rights. If every one were free to defend himself in all circumstances, the right of self-defense would keep men constantly under arms; and society, without a regulating power to check their doings, would soon, as the philosopher Hobbes expressed it, be “the war of all against all.” Hence the necessity of the State—that is to say, of a disinterested power—taking in hand the defense of all, and insuring the proper exercise of the right of self-defense by suppressing its abuses. This is what is called public authority.

80. Society and the State.—We must distinguish between society and the State, or natural society and civil society.

Society is the union which exists between men, without distinction of frontiers—without exterior restraint—and for the sole reason that they are men. An Englishman and an Indian, as Locke says, meeting in the waste forests of America (Robinson and Friday), are, from the fact alone of their common nature, in a state of society.

The civil society or State is an assemblage of men subject to a common authority, to common laws—that is to say, a society whose members may be constrained by public force to respect their reciprocal rights.

81. The three powers.—There results from that, that two necessary elements enter into the idea of the State: laws and force. The laws are the general rules which establish beforehand and fix after deliberation, and abstractly, the rights of each; force is the physical restraint the public power is armed with to have the laws executed. Hence two powers in the State, the legislative power and the executive power—one that makes the law; the other that executes it, and to which may generally be added a third, namely, judiciary power, which, on its part, is empowered to apply and interpret the law.[60]

82. Sovereignty.—These three powers emanate from a common source which is called sovereign. In all States, the sovereign is the authority which is in possession of the three preceding powers and delegates them. In an absolute monarchy, the sovereign is the monarch, who of himself exercises the legislative and executive power, sometimes even the judicial power. In a democracy, the sovereign is the universality of the citizens, or the people, which delegates the three powers, and even in some cases exercises them.

As to the basis of sovereignty, two systems face each other: the divine right and the sovereignty of the people. In the first, the authority emanates from God, who transmits it to chosen families; in the second, societies, like individuals, are free arbiters, and belong to themselves; they are answerable for their destinies; and this can only be true of the entire society; for why should certain classes rather than others have the privilege to decide about the fate of each? The sovereignty of the people is then nothing else than the right of each to participate in public power, either of himself or through his representatives. This principle tends more and more to predominate in civilized States.

83. Political liberty.—Political liberty means all the guaranties which insure to every citizen the legitimate exercise of his natural rights; political liberty is, then, the sanction of civil liberty.

The principal of these guaranties are: 1, the right of suffrage, which insures to every one his share of sovereignty; 2, the separation of powers, which puts into different hands the executive, legislative, and judicial powers; 3, the liberty of the press, which insures the right of minorities, and allows them to employ argument to change or modify the ideas and opinions of the majority.