liberty that she exists to impose, and cannot be justifiably overthrown, whatever her conduct 126 . For Locke and Rousseau, and Mill in particular, the sovereign state exists to prosecute the common will, and becomes illegitimate and unjustified if it exceeds or neglects this purpose, at which point, the social contract is dissolved and the state ceases to exist 127 . Nozick’s line of argument tends to concur with Locke and Rousseau on both of these points of divergence, with a greater emphasis on property, and the economic functions of individuals. Thus, Nozick’s position is that the state’s only function is to secure and preserve the ability of its citizens to contract freely with one another; a demand for reversion to the night-watchman, or minimal state, of the laissez-faire liberalism of the 18 th and 19 th centuries 128 . Nozick’s argument that private contract is the most philosophically desirable means for the exercise of attendant human liberty makes no claim that it is the most practically desirable or efficient means. Nor is it clear that “basic” human rights, or the rights to property and to freedom of contract, are in any way impinged by, say, universal health or education provision. As Nozick observes, “The operators of the ultra minimalist state are morally obligated to 126 See Hobbes, T., Leviathan , Ch. XIII “Of The Naturall Condition of Mankind” in the section “Out of Civil States” at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm#link2H_4_0203, retrieved 14/04/2016 at 15:57 p.m. 127 See Locke, J., Two Treatises of Government , at http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/locke/government.pdf, p. 161, Rousseau, J. J., The Social Contract , at http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/rousseau1762.pdf, p. 12, and in general terms, Mill, J. S., On Liberty , at http://www.bartleby.com/130/1.html, all retrieved 14/04/2016 at 16:14 p.m. 128 Nozick, R., Anarchy, State and Utopia , ps. 26, 51 and 84 at https://joseywales1965.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/0001_anarchy_state_an d_utopia.pdf, retrieved 14/04/2016 at 19:30 p.m.
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