Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Addressing Predatory Governance in Yemen
Introduction: What is a Predatory State? Among the political philosophies that talk about the origins of governments and states, social contract theory has been foundational in shaping modern political thought. The idea that governments are created through a voluntary agreement among free individuals to ensure collective protection and societal well-being has been influential in developing the political institutions especially in liberal democratic states. According to Hobbes, government is a necessary evil against man’s state of nature where life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”. In this perspective, a contractual state acts as a provider of public goods and services in exchange for the citizens’ obedience to the law and giving up some of their freedoms and liberties. However, in autocratic states, the idea of a social contract seems absurd because the benefits that citizens can reap from erection of governments are minimal. Instead, the state engages in predat...