ABSTRACT
Many modern and past political theorists have thought that political authority can be justified by means of a contract. A contract is a formal promise or undertaking, which creates an obligation to do something that did not previously exist. The Hobbes believes political authority is justified because people agree to it, although it remained unclear exactly how the agreement confers justification. His claim is that the Fool has a self-interested reason for keeping his agreement, on the following grounds. The Fool will not be trusted by others, and will therefore not be defended by them; it is irrational to risk disaster by defecting or attempting to assassinate the sovereign, even if in some cases defection is not detected. The either or may seem clearly to allow for the possibility that a promise may be transformed into a 'covenant', that is, a contract where one side has already performed, even before the establishment of the 'civil power'.
