How Insurgencies Take Root If seditious conspirators are always waiting in the wings, does citizen discontent with the government present them with an opportunity to start an insurgency?
Contrary to Hobbes s contention that citizens should remain satisfied with the benefits of established peace under a common power, the historical record of insurrections and uprisings prior to Hobbes s time suggests 6/7 a different conclusion.7 Even in Hobbes s civilized England, government corruption, inequitable socioeconomic and political programs, as well as perceived injustices were likely to lead to grievances, which conspirators could exploit. Hobbes s Leviathan actually neutralizes this threat by placing a higher premium on order rather than on perceived injustices. Uprisings may erupt, but society would expect the government to respond with exigent force to establish order once again. Hobbes submits that the common power possesses the requisite force to keep all men in awe, and that this power is justified: Covenants without the sword are but words, and of no strength to secure a man at all. 8 Having made a covenant with the government, the individual expects the government to
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