Comparing Social Contract Theories: Hobbes vs. Locke vs. Rousseau

State of Nature

• Men are selfish and bad by nature.
• We just follow the instinct of self-preservation.
• Therefore, men are in a war of all against all, and they feel frightened.

• Men have natural rights and obligations because God provided them.
• The most important right is private property.
• Man can increase his private property if he works to get it.

• Man has innate goodness and has feelings of love and pity.
• Men live isolated, but when they meet others, the population increases.
• The increase in population leads men to be organized into groups, and private property appears.

Reason for the Social Contract

• They replace freedom with the sovereign will in exchange for peace and security.
• The contract is irreversible. To break the contract means to go back to the initial anarchy.
• We do not have the right of rebellion.

• To have natural rights doesn't mean that others will respect them. Others can try to get the property using force.
• The contract is between the individuals and the sovereign.
• Individuals don't renounce their freedom but agree not to use force against other individuals.

• Living together imposes a situation of inequality because people start to produce more than they need. We create false necessities.
• To avoid this new situation, humans start to use their reason to create laws, and in this way, we created moral values.
• Therefore, the contract is between each individual and themselves, with their own reason.

The State After the Contract

• Authoritarian State.

• Parliamentary democracy.
• Separation of powers.
• Individuals have the right of rebellion if the sovereign doesn't protect their natural rights inside the new society.

• Direct democracy.
• Men remain free because they create and obey the law simultaneously.
• The sovereign is the union of all citizens that follow the General Will [Free citizens look for the well-being of the whole society and not only for themselves].