Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV THE ORIGIN OF THE STATE, CONTINUED: THE CONTRACT THEORY In our search for a justification of the authority of the State, we have thus far been forced to reject as invalid the answers given by the " force," " instinctive," "utilitarian,""natural," and "divine " theories. There yet remains to be considered the so-called " Contract Theory," or that theory which founds the State upon an original agreement entered into by the individuals of a society, who, prior to that time, have been entirely independent of political control. Now, aside from the conception of a superhuman spirit, there is no other reason, understanding, or will than that existing in individual human beings. If, then, we premise in these individuals an inherent right of self-determination of action as the foundation of all morality, it would seem necessarily to follow, that the only way in which an authority that coercively restrains these individuals can justifiably exist, is by the consent of the subjects in some way given to the imposition of such control over them. It remains to be seen, however, whether this consent is of a sort that may be given in such an original compact as is embraced in the Contract Theory, and whether, in fact, such a compact is logically possible. Before proceeding directly to this point, it will be necessary to state in a general way the various forms in which this theory has been held by different writers. In giving the views of these writers, we shall state at considerable length not only their theories as to the origin of the State, but also the deductions drawn by them, from this premise, regarding the proper scope of the State's power, and the nature of the relations that exist between the governed and the governing. This we do, because it is pre-eminentl... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.