Political Obligation

Political obligation thus refers to the moral duty of citizens to obey the laws of their state.

Political Obligation

Unlimited Obligation Gandhian Theory Limited Obligation Anti-Obligation

I. Unlimited Obligation
• Divine Theory
- The theory of divine right of kings holds that the authority of the sovereign is derived from God.
- Obedience to the state is as imperative as obedience to the god.
- Since God’s will is binding on all mortals, this theory upholds an unlimited political obligation.
- If King turns out tyrant, people have to obey him as a punishment for their sin.
- Divine theory concedes inheritance of the same authority.
- Since this theory denies any right of the individual to exercise his judgement about right and
wrong and to resist any wrong law or command, this too can hardly be treated as genuine theory
of political obligation.
• Force Theory
- The State is powerful enough to make an individual obey its laws and commands, whether he
likes it or not.
- Political Obligation is based on the fear of punishment or other unpleasant consequences which
would follow from disobedience of law.
- The political obligation is unlimited as the individual is too weak to challenge the authorities.
- The difficulty with this theory is that it is not based on any moral ground and does not allow the
individual to inquire whether a law is right or wrong.
- It does not permit the individual to resist any law or command which could be wrong in his
judgement.
• Conservative Theory
- Advantages of obedience to any type of political authority outweigh the disadvantages of having
no government at all.
- According to Edmund Burke, Revolution is evil because it involves violence and destruction and
it results in misuse of power by those who manage to capture it.
- Burke ruled out extreme versions of reform because they destroy the social fabric without
providing the mechanism for its repair.
- To interfere with any major institution would start a chain of repercussions throughout the whole
system, with results no man could foresee.
- According to Michael Oakeshott, Political activity is neither a product of contract nor of any
mutuality of purpose.
- The conservative view of political obligation is based on legitimacy rather than on consent or
morality.

II. Limited Obligation

• Consent Theory
- A government can exercise its powers only with an explicit or implicit consent of its citizens.
- According to Thomas Hobbes, Man’s life in state of nature was Solitary, Poor, Nasty and was in
state of war with everyone. They surrendered all their natural rights to the newly created political
authority—the sovereign. This surrender was final and irrevocable, because moving out of this
position would result in going back to the state of nature.
- According to John Locke, man is by nature a rational creature who is generally inclined to
follow the rules of morality. Civil Society was established by mutual consent of the people.
Under the social contract, man surrenders the right to be the judge in his own case to the state
which is entrusted with the task of protection of his natural right to Life, Liberty and Property.
Government is created as a trust which can be dissolved if it fails to perform this function.
- According to Jack Rousseau, in due course the increasing size of population and the consequent
scarcity of goods brought a sense of insecurity among men which led to conflict between
individual’s actual will (self- interested) and real will( General). In order to overcome this
difficulty, men entered into the social contract by placing themselves under the direction and
control of general will which represented the convergence of the real will of all members of
community.
• Moralist View
- It can be invoked for vindicating limited as well as unlimited obligation which is based on the
sense of right and wrong.
- When the provisions of law coincide with the rules of morality and receive our spontaneous
approval, then we feel naturally obliged to obey law and the commands of public authority which
can be invoked to vindicate unlimited political obligation.
- On the contrary, if a particular law or a command of public authority does not coincide with our
moral judgement, we are not morally obliged to obey it
- Thus from the moralist point of view, individual’s obligation to obey political authority is
conditional, and not absolute. This argument can be invoked to vindicate limited political
obligation.
• Idealist View
- Idealist Theory is based on Universal Rationality.
- According to Georg Hegel, an individual follows the state only when his ideas are aligned to the
thinking of the state. Due to this, individuals have unlimited obligation towards the state.
- According to T.H. Green, every individual in a society thinks collectively for the betterment of
the society and every individual must have the right to question the decisions of the state and not
blindly follow it even when they know its wrong.
- Individuals have limited obligation towards the state.

III. Anti-Obligation
• Marxist View
- People’s state in Proletariat dictatorship( absolute obligation is demanded)
- The role of Proletariat Dictatorship was to destroy Capitalist Machinery.
- To bring equality among proletariat and bourgeoise, Proletariat dictatorship(Temporary) was
established for collectivisation of resources from the bourgeoise and distribute it among
proletariats.
- Distribution of resources led to dissolution of state( controlled by bourgeoise).
- This led to conversion of Capitalist Society to Communism Society.
- Communism has no obligation towards the state.
• Anarchist View
- An individual should not obey the state on the grounds of morality.
- State is organised force/power.
- Individuals have rational thinking among each others due to which they are not obliged to follow
the state.
- Reason is Self-Centric.
- Rationality should be backed by morality.

IV. Gandhian Theory

- “State is a soul-less machine”— Gandhi
- Gandhi talks about Swaraj — Self Rule which is based on self consciousness of people.
- Gandhi didn’t consider state as immoral instead he asked state to work on the basis of morality—
guided by truth.
- Means of protest should be non-violent
- Truth makes people realise what is truth.
- According to Gandhi, an individual or group should have good means for going against any
decision of state for good outcome.
- Ideal State: state which can still be achieved, yet you set some target which you want to achieve.
- Utopian State: every individual should be treated equally. It is above Ideal State. In order to
achieve Ideal State the means required needs to be ideal.
- According to Gandhi, Violence need not be physical as it can be conveyed through action, words.
- He talked about changing mind of the people.
- Gandhi says that the ideology of an Individual should be so strong that it influences the mentality
of an individual.
- Gandhi went from Ideal state to Utopian State.
- He is too ideal— he wants to achieve something but then goes to utopia in which hr doesn’t
question and simply accepts things the way it is.
- According to him, one should keep his needs to be minimum.