are in constant desire of ÂfelicityÊ, continual success in achieving objects of desire. He believed that this desire could never be satisfied and humans would constantly try to acquire power in order to quench this hunger for ÂfelicityÊ, in fact he even defined power as oneÊs Âpresent means to obtain some future apparent goodÊ (Leviathan). Therefore we can see that humans constantly try and quench their wants but in reality their needs are much smaller. Hobbs also believed that in a state of nature, a hypothetical world where there is no governing body, life would be ÂSolitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and shortÊ (Leviathan), due to a lack of trust and desire for ÂfelicityÊ causing constant conflict. Therefore he concluded that as authority was obviously formed to remove humans from the turmoil of the state of nature, the purpose of the state must therefore be to help humans, a utilitarian objective. However we can also clearly see from his negative portrayal of human nature that the state cannot simply cater to the wants of people as they are never-ending, self-interested and often impossible to balance peacefully. Therefore we must conclude both that the purpose of the state is to help the people and that in order to help the people we must not necessarily listen to their demands. Now I can address the problems with democracy on a utilitarian front. Firstly I would argue that the most important aspect of government with regards to optimizing utility is economics. A defunct economics has in my mind perhaps the greatest capacity to do harm, apart from a governments ability to declare war. I believe that virtually all democratic nations suffer economically because of democracy. This is because economics is a hugely complex subject and the vast majority of voters have no understanding of it. Voters generally act in their own short term interests, which can often have dire consequences. Take for example Ancient Athens, the birthplace of democracy. In all democratic systems the majority of people will vote for what they perceive as most beneficial for themselves. Today this could be the promise of lower
taxation or increased welfare spending. However in Ancient Athens, a largely maritime society, this was increased imperial expansion. This was because the largest and poorest social group was paid to row the warships and therefore voted in favour of increased naval warfare. However, often what is in the interest of the largest social group, in this case war, is not necessarily to the benefit of society as a whole. Fortunately for Athens imperial expansion did have large economic benefits, however their tendency towards expansion precipitated their eventual demise. Against the wishes of many it was voted that they would attack Sicily. The majority of their fleet was destroyed and many of their men were condemned to life in slave mines. This also led to the Spartans reigniting the Peloponnesian war and the eventual fall of Athens and her allies. It is ironic that the birthplace of modern democracy was undone as a result of the political mechanism it is so famed for. Therefore we can clearly see that with most issues the electorate are unsure of the most beneficial path due to a lack of education. I believe the idiocy of this is expertly explained by Plato with his Âcraft analogyÊ. If you were ill and wanted advice on your health, you would go to an expert, the doctor. You would want the decisions over your treatment to be made by someone specially trained for the job. You would not however assemble a crowd and ask them to vote on which treatment is best. I believe the health of the state is a matter of even greater importance that the health of an individual. However why do we use experts for our health but allow people with no knowledge of the correct action to ultimately control our state. This argument was the basis of PlatoÊs inquiries which wholly fell against democracy, with Socrates famously telling the Athenians to vote that asses were horses. I believe that I have largely addressed the utilitarian problems with democracy. However throughout this essay I have run with the assumption that in any given scenario the just action is the one which maximizes utility. However let us say for
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