Corporate Persons without Authorization

Abstract

In Leviathan , Hobbes uses his new theory of authorization to explain the nature of corporate persons. While On the Citizen lacks the theory of authorization, it includes several accounts of corporate persons. In On the Citizen , Hobbes suggests that a group forms a corporate person when its members accept obligations to support a sovereign, when the members are all compelled to act in concert, or when the members of the group adopt voting rules for making decisions. Hobbes also uses his analysis of the commonwealth as a corporate person to argue for the sovereign’s immunity in On the Citizen much as he does in Leviathan . Generally speaking, the Leviathan account of corporate persons is superior to the ones in On the Citizen . However, Hobbes needs the voting rules account from On the Citizen in order to explain how democratic and aristocratic assemblies can serve as sovereigns. Since he tries to replace the voting rules account with the authorization account in Leviathan , this raises a problem for him that he does not appreciate.

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