Violence

Abstract

This chapter deals with the questions of violence and Hobbes' theory of the state. Violence refers to a variety of different types of action. The chapter draws an important distinction between two main types of violence: physical violence (often referred to as simply 'violence'), and moral violence (often qualified by other terms, such as 'spiritual', 'structural' or 'psychological' violence). Both physical and moral violence are coercive and engender resistance. They are coercive in the sense that they seek to change the behaviour of others. But violence also has a subjective element. For it to qualify as violence, it needs to be perceived as such by others. Typically, violence needs to be recognized as such by those on whom it is exercised. The term 'violence', when used on its own, implies that there is a physical aspect to it. Non-physical uses of the term 'violence' need it to be qualified, typically, for interlocutors to make sense of what type of violence is being discussed. Physical violence is material in that it uses material means to achieve its ends. Moral violence is the result of attempting to achieve ends through blackmail, spying and manipulation. This bureaucratic violence, as a form of moral violence, is the one that is characteristic of the modern nation state and largely explains its successes and failures. State violence today relies mostly on this type of moral violence to create compliance.