The Leviathan: A Walkway to Liberty 

Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher and historian in the 17th century. In 1651, he published his most notable work, The Leviathan. He described how human beings, left without restraint, would live in a condition he called Warre. Warre is not constant violence or endless bloodshed, but the absence of assurance to the contrary. The knowledge that violence could occur at any moment, and that no higher authority exists to stop it. In that world, planning becomes irrational, trust collapses, and survival dominates every human interaction.

Hobbes’ solution to Warre was the Leviathan. A singular, powerful presence (the state), to which society submits its authority in exchange for order. The Leviathan ends Warre by creating predictability and stability. Its power emerges from perceived legitimacy and, ultimately, from force. Society submits because the alternative is chaos.

Hobbes largely treats the Leviathan as a singular, rational actor whose interests align with social order. What his theory underestimates is the fallibility of the Leviathan. It is staffed by people, shaped by incentives, and insulated by power. Once authority is centralized, the question is no longer how Warre is avoided, but who controls the mechanisms of violence, coercion, and policy. Hobbes explains why societies submit to authority, but he offers few tools for understanding how that authority can rot, harden, or turn inward once submission has occurred.

This is the core pitfall of Hobbes’ theory. The same concentration of power that ends Warre also creates the conditions for domination. The Leviathan that protects can just as easily punish. The Leviathan that resolves conflict can manufacture it. Without sustained pressure from society, the logic that justifies absolute authority in moments of fear becomes the logic that excuses repression in moments of calm.

The Despotic Leviathan

Hobbes imagined a Leviathan that would protect its subjects, resolve disputes fairly, provide public services, and allow economic life to flourish. What history shows us instead is that the Leviathan does not have a single face. Alongside the protective state exists another, darker form. The Despotic Leviathan.

A despotic Leviathan wages war not against external enemies, but against its own people. Nazi Germany stands as an obvious example. So do regimes that pursued catastrophic policies while maintaining absolute authority, such as Mao’s Great Leap Forward or Stalin’s Holodomor. In these cases, the state retained enormous capacity. It could mobilize resources, enforce obedience, and suppress dissent. But it used that capacity to dominate rather than protect.

The despotic Leviathan silences its citizens and becomes impervious to their wishes. It imprisons, maims, and murders. It steals the fruits of their labor, or enables others to do so. It may still get things done, but what gets done serves repression, not liberty. As has been said of the Chinese Leviathan, much like the Leviathan of the Third Reich, it ends Warre only to replace it with a different nightmare.

Despotism flows from the inability of society to influence the state’s policies and actions. When society loses its leverage, the Janus-faced Leviathan takes hold.

The Absent Leviathan

Not all societies rely on a Leviathan. Stateless societies attempt to avoid Warre through social norms, like customs, traditions, rituals, and shared expectations of behavior. Norms determine what is considered right and wrong, which behaviors are discouraged, and when individuals or families will be ostracized and cut off from communal support.

These norms bond people together, coordinate collective action, and allow communities to respond to serious crimes or external threats. In the absence of a Leviathan, norms are critical to avoiding Warre.

But norms also impose a cage. Adherence to them reduces vulnerability to violence, yet demands conformity. Freedom is surrendered for collective protection, resulting in a form of voluntary servitude. 

Over time, subservient social statuses emerge and are justified by these norms. Beliefs about what is proper harden into custom. Norms are not arbitrary, but have evolved because they once served a function. These norms are often exploited by those in positions of power. In this way, the cage of norms can produce domination comparable to that of a despotic or absent Leviathan.

The Paper Leviathan

Some states occupy an even more precarious position. Common in parts of Latin America and Africa, paper Leviathans combine the worst traits of despotic and absent states. They are unaccountable to society, yet incapable of enforcing laws, resolving conflicts, or providing services. They are repressive while being weak.

Paper Leviathans appear powerful on paper but are too disorganized to rule effectively. They cannot become fully despotic because they lack the capacity to protect themselves from society or external forces. Instead of building institutions, leaders weaponize their incompetence, rewarding access to what should be a functioning bureaucracy to selective compliant individuals.

Citizens under a paper Leviathan have little influence over government decisions, receive minimal protection from Warre, and remain trapped in the cage of social norms. Repression is present, but welfare and security are not.

The Shackled Leviathan

Between despotism and anarchy lies the Shackled Leviathan. This is a state with the capacity to enforce laws, control violence, resolve conflicts, and provide public services, yet one that remains constrained by an assertive, well-organized society.

An effective shackled Leviathan can solve disputes fairly, enforce complex laws, and maintain a large bureaucracy, even if that bureaucracy is imperfect. It maintains a strong military without turning it against its citizens. It collects massive amounts of information but refrains from exploiting it for repression. It responds to public demands and can intervene to loosen the cage of norms, particularly for disadvantaged groups.

Crucially, bureaucrats are subject to oversight, and elected leaders are removed when citizens no longer approve of their actions. A shackled Leviathan creates liberty, but only so long as society remains willing to complain, demonstrate, and rise up when the state oversteps its bounds. These social shackles, not legal ones, are what prevent despotism.

The Red Queen Effect

In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Alice meets and runs a race with the Red Queen. Alice noticed that both appeared to be running, only to remain in the same place. The relationship between the state and society resembles this concept of the Red Queen effect. Both the state and society must advance at roughly the same pace to preserve balance. 

If society slows down, becomes apathetic, fearful, or disengaged, the state’s growing capacity turns a shackled Leviathan into a despotic one. If the state slows down, failing to meet new economic, technological, or social challenges, frustration festers, legitimacy erodes, and instability follows.

This competition is not a zero-sum game. The goal is not for society to defeat the state, or for the state to overpower society. Compromise within competition is necessary. A state must expand and advance its role and capacity to meet new challenges, while society becomes more powerful and vigilant. Exhausting as this dynamic may be, it is necessary for the progress of society and liberty.

Defending Liberty

American liberty emerged from persistent social mobilization. Without an assertive society, constitutional protections are worth little more than the paper they are written on. Liberty depends on the shared belief that power remains balanced between state and society. 

If society allows elites and institutions to accumulate unchecked power, the Leviathan becomes despotic. If the state falls behind, it becomes absent. Liberty lives only in the narrow, unstable space between these extremes. It is maintained through constant effort, vigilance, and resistance. The Leviathan can be built, restrained, and rebuilt again, but only so long as society keeps running.

Authors note: The analysis in this article draws heavily from the framework of Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.