Well would you look at that. Turns out that, in Hobbes and other liberals, the sovereign state comes before the social contract. It is not the contract that forms the state, but the state, by being the monopolist on the use of violence, that springs forth the contract that is "signed" by the citezens that live under it. The state does not partake in the social contract; it enforces that contract. The parts are the individuals that, defeated by the power of the state, are forced to live in peace amongst each other.

Of course, this would be true only if we accepted the liberal / enlightenment antropology, which I don't. But it's still interesting to understand this better.

#SocialContract #ModernState