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The monopoly on the legitimate use of violence (Gewaltmonopol des Staates, also known as monopoly on legitimate violence and monopoly on violence) is the definition of the state expounded by Max Weber in Politics as a Vocation, and has been predominant in philosophy of law and political philosophy in the twentieth century. It defined a single entity, the state, exercising legitimate authority or violence over a given territory as territory was also deemed by Weber a characteristic of state. Monopoly on the simple use of violence, as discussed below, is different. There are several caveats which apply to this basic principle Generally speaking, those who support the existence of the state believe that there should be a monopoly on the use of violence, or at least a near monopoly. That is, they believe private violence should be prevented or punished unless it is used solely in immediate self-defense from violence. Supporters of the state monopoly argue that if a monopoly on the use of violence does not exist, private individuals or groups will, inevitably, arm themselves and use violence against each other and others; thus they claim that anarchy results in more violence than found in even the most violent state. In support of such reasoning, supporters sometimes point to areas and periods where, on their reading of events, this monopoly did not exist (or, in some sense, where there existed close to a "free market" in violence and security), such as modern Somalia, or Europe during the Dark Ages. They contend that such instances show that the attainment by any government of a monopoly on violence would have improved the lives of the inhabitants. The philosopher Thomas Hobbes strongly supported a centralized practitioner of force, as he believed that that is the only way an orderly society could be maintained. As Hobbes writes in The Leviathan
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