HEGEL’S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY ANDREPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Hegel’s political philosophy can simply otherwise be seen as his theory of the State. In it, he assigns a supreme power to the State (that is, the government). TheState as the universal will of the Absolute Spirit assumes an unquestionable standing because the Absolute cannot be wrong in its decisions taken through the political leaders who are mere stooges in its hands. The political leaders cannot be wrong because they act according to the wills of the Absolute Spirit. This situation can well be seen evident in Nigeria’s political clime, whereby the elected leaders of the people who are supposed to represent the will and aspirations of the people choose to govern with the mindset that they, without consultation, know all the best for the people. They make and execute laws under the misguided and ill-conceived notion that they are supreme over their subjects. Worse still, they corruptly enrich themselves to the detriment of their subjects, for, after all, in the theory of Hegel, they (the government) are embodiment of the Absolute Spirit. This paper takes a look at the defects in Hegel’s theory of the state which the representatives of a country like Nigeria might have taken as their model in pushing through their anti-electorates’ style of living and leadership.