Social and Political Philosophy
Social and Political Philosophy examines the state, political authority, justice, liberty, equality, rights and obligation. GCE questions often ask you to compare social contract theories, analyse liberty, assess Rawlsian justice, and evaluate civil disobedience or Marxism.
State, authority and contract
A state is a set of institutions claiming sovereignty and a monopoly of legitimate coercion; a government is its current office-holders. Legitimacy may be traditional, charismatic or rational-legal (Weber). Hobbes's social contract trades natural liberty for security under an absolute sovereign. Locke grounds government in natural rights and permits revolution when trust is breached. Rousseau's general will expresses popular sovereignty and the common good.
Liberty and justice
Isaiah Berlin distinguishes negative liberty (non-interference) from positive liberty (self-mastery); each can be distorted. Mill's harm principle limits interference to preventing harm to others. Rawls's justice as fairness uses the original position and veil of ignorance to derive two principles: equal basic liberties, and fair equality of opportunity plus the difference principle, which permits inequalities only if they benefit the least advantaged. Nozick defends entitlement and a minimal state; Marx analyses class, alienation and ideology.
Civil disobedience
Rawls defines civil disobedience as public, nonviolent, conscientious and aimed at substantial injustice, undertaken within fidelity to law. Thoreau's version is more individualist and conscience-driven.
Worked example
Behind Rawls's veil of ignorance, parties do not know their class, talents, gender or conception of the good. They must choose principles that protect them whatever position they occupy. Rational maximin reasoning favours equal basic liberties and permits inequalities only when they improve the worst-off position. This rules out utilitarianism, which could sacrifice a minority for aggregate gain, and pure meritocracy, which leaves the least advantaged exposed. The veil removes bargaining advantages, making the agreement fair.
Traps
Do not equate the state with the government. The social contract is a justificatory device, not a historical event. Negative liberty is not the absence of all law; law can protect liberty. Rawls does not demand equality of outcome: the difference principle allows inequalities under conditions. Marx is not merely a moral preacher; he claims to analyse the dynamics of capitalism. Civil disobedience is not any illegal protest: it must meet conditions of publicity, nonviolence and fidelity to law.