Contractarian Theories: Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau

Contractarian Theories: A Comparison

Classic contractarian theories share these elements:

1. The state of nature is the starting point: Imagine humanity without political organization.
2. The social contract is a necessary artifice: Ideal situations are unattainable, so civil society must be built from an artificial contract between individuals.
3. The political system is founded on the legitimacy of the contract: The rules of the social contract shape the resulting state.

Hobbes: The Contract of Submission

1. In the natural state, humans tend to satisfy their own desires, using reason to achieve their ends. This leads to a state of war of all against all, which is unsustainable.
2. The contract obliges individuals (now subjects) to give all freedoms to a sovereign power.
3. This irrevocable assignment of rights leads to political absolutism.

Locke: The Liberal Contract

1. Humans are naturally free and equal, subject to natural law. Natural law states that life and property are inalienable rights that must be respected.
2. The contract obliges individuals who freely want to sign it. They waive the ability to legislate and punish crimes against natural rights. The executive and judiciary powers are conditional and revocable.
3. The transfer of rights is partial. Individuals retain the right to private property. Political power is held by a group of people who rule in defense of individual natural rights. The resulting political system is liberalism.

Rousseau's Social Contract

1. In the natural state, humans are absolutely free, self-sufficient, and feel no desire to harm others.
2. Through a contract, each individual voluntarily gives all rights to a general will, yielding the same for all possible freedom and community life.
3. All individuals give the same rights to the community. The power represents the general will of all. The resulting system is democracy.

Definition of society: Humans are social animals who need community life. In classical Greece, it was said that the individual...