Western Political Thought Lecture Series

THE SOCIAL CONTRACTUALISTS

HOBBES, LOCKE & ROUSSEAU

Dr. LALNUNDIKA HNAMTE

Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Government J. Buana College, Lunglei
nundikahnamte@gmail.com / 8413934717
Thomas Hobbes, John Locke & Jean Jacques
Rousseau
 Social Contract Theory
• It is one of the liberal theories of origin of state
• Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and JJ Rousseau are
pioneers of social contract theory
• Thomas Hobbes – Leviathan (1651)
• John Locke – Two Treatises of Government
(1689)
• JJ Rousseau – The Social Contract (1762), Emile
(1762)
• It held that origin of the state was due to contract,
agreement or covenant amongst people living in the
‘State of Nature’.
• It refers to the voluntary agreement of individuals in
society to establish a govt. which will secure their
rights and welfare.
 THOMAS HOBBES
• Born in 1588 in Malmesbury, England
• In his lifetime, he was denounced for his alleged
atheism, blasphemy and impiety
• He was known as the Monster of Malmesbury
• The Leviathan (1651) is Hobbes' most famous work.
• Hobbes’ mechanical materialism, his nominalism,
radical individualism and psychological egoism
greatly influenced the utilitarian thinkers later on.
• He is regarded as Father of Modern Political Science
• He died in 1679
 State Of Nature
• According to Hobbes, State of Nature is a world in
which there was no government.
• People were unrestrained by govt. and laws
• It was a state of perfect anarchy
• The result was chaos and disorder
• There can be no justice, morality, industry or
civilization.
• ‘MIGHT is RIGHT’
• It was a state of war- of every man against every
man
• Hobbes held a pessimistic view of human nature
• The life of man in the State of Nature is ‘solitary,
poor, nasty, bruttish and short’
• To maximise pleasure & minimise pain or avoid
death – they are in constant conflict
• The 3 principal causes of conflict/quarrel in the
state of nature are: competition, diffidence and
glory.
• The first make men invade for gain; the second
for safety; and the third for reputation"
• The only way of evading the perils of the State
of Nature is the laws of nature (general rule)
State of Nature: The world as it is- without
government.
Laws of Nature (lex naturalis)
• The Laws of nature are called the theorems of peace.
• It is a general rule, found out by reason, which forbids
a man to do what is destructive of his life or others.
• 3 imp. natural laws (of 19):
i. Seek peace & follow it
ii. Abandon the natural right to things
iii. Individuals must honour their contracts
• The Right of Nature is the liberty of each man to use
his own power for the preservation of his own life;
and of doing anything, in his own judgement & reason.
 Social Contract
• Men can only live together in large numbers and for
any length of time if they are subject to a govt. strong
enough to control their destructive tendencies.
1) It is rationally necessary to seek peace
2) The way to secure peace is to enter into agreement
with others not to harm one another
• Hobbes makes distinction between a contract & a
covenant.
• Contract refers to the mutual transferring of right.
• Covenant is a special kind of contract which implies
trust and promise for future performance
• A covenant/commonwealth could be established by
two methods: Acquisition (by force) & Institution (by
agreement)
• By institution, the sovereign authority is created out of
a covenant among individuals.
• To escape from the state of nature, individuals
renounce their natural rights and institute by common
consent, a third person or body of persons, conferring
all rights on him for enforcing the contract.
• Sovereign power was appointed to defend them
collectively and punish those who violate its terms
• The sovereign is created by, but is not a party to, the
compact.
• By Acquisition, individuals submit to the rule of the
conqueror for their security in exchange of their
obedience.
• To Hobbes, fear is no less a basis of obligation than
free consent.
• “Covenants without sword are but words and of no
strength to secure a man at all”
• Hobbes was in favour of absolute sovereignty.
• Sovereign power could be vested in any kind of govt.
– best is monarch / absolute monarch
• Monarchial power is efficient & enduring because it is
undivided
• Hobbes thought that there be one state religion and
that the head of the state is also the head of the
church.
• Religious belief is a pvt. matter, but the public aspects
of religion must be completely subordinate to public
authority.
• Power is conditional to the willingness & effectiveness
to the defence & protection of subjs.
• Subjs. are no longer obliged to obey a ruler who is
defeated by an invading enemy
• Individuals have the right of disobedience or
resistance when the right of self-preservation got
threatened.
 JOHN LOCKE
• Locke was born in 1632 in Somerset, England.
• During his time, British history saw the transformation
of absolute monarchy into parliamentary democracy
• It was a period of the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89
• Important works:
• Two Treatises of Government (1690)
• Essays on the Law of Nature
• An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
• Letters Concerning Toleration
• The Two Treatises of Government (1690) consists of
two parts:
• 1st Treatise was against divine right of kings by Sir
Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha (1680)
• No one is by nature or by the divine will subject to
anyone else. All men are born equal; each individual
is the sovereign ruler of his own person.
• 2nd Treatise, the more important of the two, is an
inquiry into the "True, original, extent and end of Civil
Government.“
• It was written to justify the Glorious Revolution
 State of Nature
• To Locke, State of Nature is not a state of constant
warfare
• It is a state of ‘peace, goodwill, mutual assistance and
preservation’.
• The majority of people obey the laws of nature –
given by God and discernible by human reason.
• This laws teach all mankind – that being all equal and
independent, no one ought to harm another in his life,
liberty and possessions.
• Laws of nature confers upon mankind natural rights of
life, liberty and property
• In fact, Locke was a champion of right to
property.
• Labour is the origin and justification of private
property.
• When individuals mix their labour to what God
has provided, the property becomes part of
themselves.
• In State of Nature, disputes inevitably arise
especially with the growth of inequalities of
property distribution/ private property.
• In the absence of govt. there is no settled or
reliable way of resolving such disputes
• He referred to this as INCONVENIENCES not war.
 Social Contract
• 3 stages of social contract:
1) Est. of community by contracting parties
2) Setting up of govt. insts.
3) Authorisation of taxation
• He proposed constitutional govt. – where executive
institutions of govt. would be subj. to ‘rule of law’.
• There should be separation of powers – with various
functions of govt. in different hands
• Executive must be subordinate to Legislature
• Theory of resistance is a theory of revolution –
men establish govt. to defend their natural rights
and uphold natural law.
• Govt. does not supersede natural law.
• Citizens are entitled to defend their rights and
liberties even to the extent of resisting against
the govt. – with violence if necessary.
 Jean Jacques Rousseau
• Rousseau was born in 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland
• At 15, he ran away from home; moved to Savoy –
Italy – Paris.
• He had a hypersensitive personality
• His works: The Social Contract (1762), Emile (1762)
• His works were burnt in both Paris and Geneva
because of its religious content
• His arrest was ordered and fled France seeking
refuge in several countries.
• Died in 1778.
 State of Nature
• His theory of State of nature was against the
orthodox doctrine of original sin.
• Human beings are free & solitary individuals (not
essentially rational & social) who engage with each
other occasionally and are capable of self-love and
sympathy
• Man is a ‘Noble Savage’.
• Human beings are essentially good – it is only society
that corrupts them
• Due to pressure of population, natural freedom is
destroyed.
• The introduction of private property leads to
exploitation, inequality & ills of human society
• Social inequality is the basic cause of injustice
and moral corruption
• “Man is born free, but he is everywhere in
chains”
• Civil society has deprived man of his natural
liberty
• What makes human beings genuinely human is
not his capacity to reason but moral choice –
without this, they are ‘slaves’
 Social Contract
• It is an act of association where all gives up their
rights and become subjects in order to receive rights
as citizens & members of the sovereign.
• It is not possible for men to return to the freedom of
the State of Nature but to exchange that freedom for
the freedom of the citizen.
• Men can live in freedom if they live according to the
rules they have made themselves.
• Representative govt. is not democracy at all – one
person cannot represent the will of another
• He envisions direct democracy of ancient Greece
– but that was not practical in contemporary
France
• He introduces his famous doctrine, ‘General Will’
– the aggregate of citizens’ desire for communal
good
• By obeying the General Will, we obey ourselves.
• We are only truly free when we obey our ‘higher
selves’ (desire for common good) rather than our
lower selfish interests (slave to our passions)
• It is the people who are sovereign – sovereignty
of the people.
• He identifies the will of the majority with the
General Will.
• The function of the sovereign is to pass laws – the
executive shall administer them.
• Only laws based on General Will are authentic
laws that should be obeyed.