The document summarizes key concepts of social contract theory according to Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Hobbes viewed the state of nature as dangerous and advocated for absolute monarchy to maintain order. Locke believed the state of nature allowed for rational self-governance and advocated for representational democracy and protection of property rights. Rousseau viewed the state of nature positively and humans as inherently good, advocating for direct democracy and for individuals to submit to the general will of the people.

1. SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORIES
Key Concepts:
The State of Nature
The Social Contract
The Sovereign
By
Mr. Mahesh Jaiwantrao Patil
M.A (Political Science), M.Phil, NET, SET, P.hD (Pursuing)

2. Social Contract Theory
 Before society we
were in the State of
Nature.
 An individual
dictated what he/she
could/could not do.
 Survival of the Fittest
 Murder Example…

3. Social Contract Theory
 When we came into
contact with other
people we entered a
Society.
 When we created
State & government
we entered a Social
Contract.

4. Key Concepts:
 The State of Nature: A pre-social condition.
 The Social Contract: An agreement between
(a) members of the community or
 (b) members of the community and the
Sovereign.
 The Sovereign: The legitimate head of state
after the Social Contract: (a) a person or group
of persons, such as a monarch or a
government, or (b) the people representing
themselves.

5. KEY PLAYERS IN SOCIAL
CONTRACT THEORY
 Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679):
Argues in favor of absolute
monarchy.
 He published his book, the
Leviathan, in 1651. In this book
he gave a striking exposition of
the theory of Social Contract.
 His object was to defend the
absolute power of the monarch
and he used the doctrine of the
Social Contract to support it.

6. Thomas Hobbes
 Believed that life in
the state of nature is
"solitary, poor, nasty,
brutish, and short"
 His most famous
work is Leviathan.

7. Thomas Hobbes
 Believed that humans are inherently bad
because everyone is self-interested.
 Hobbs felt it was best to submit to the will of a
Sovereign without question.

8. Thomas Hobbes
 Man entered into government for Safety.
 The main role of government is to protect
its citizens.
 Rights and liberty always come after
safety and protection.
 Never overthrow the government
because doing so creates anarchy and
then there is no safety.

9. VIEWS ON THE STATE OF
NATURE:
 Hobbes: The State of Nature is a dangerous place,
and “life of man “ is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short.”
■ characterized as the pre-social phase of
human nature
■ “the liberty that each man has to use his
own power for the preservation of his own
nature.”
■ Man not at all social, indeed “nothing but
grief in the company of his fellows”- all being
almost equally selfish, self- seeking,
egoistic, brutal and aggressive.

10. The State of Nature:
■ characterized as the pre-social phase
of human nature
■ “the liberty that each man has to use
his own power for the preservation of
his own nature.”
■ Man not at all social, indeed “nothing
but grief in the company of his fellows”-
all being almost equally selfish, self-
seeking, egoistic, brutal and
aggressive.

11. The Contract
■ Agreed to surrender their natural rights
into the hands of common superior and
to obey his commands.
establish
■ A contract binding each and all to
unquestioning obedience to a
asovereign could really
stable commonwealth.

12. KEY PLAYERS IN SOCIAL
CONTRACT THEORY
 John Locke (1632-1704): Argues in favor
of representational democracy. Anti-
royalist.
 He is an English Political
philosopher, advocates of limited
Monarchy in England.
o The theory of John Locke is found in
his Two Treaties on Civil Government
published in 1690 defended the
ultimate right of the people to depose
the monarch from his authority if he
ever deprived them of their “liberties
and properties.”

13. John Locke
 Wrote Two Treatises on Government.
 The first treatise is concerned almost
exclusively with refuting the argument of
Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha, that political
authority was derived from religious
authority, also known by the description of
the Divine Right of Kings.
 The second treatise contains Locke’s own
constructive view of the aims and
justification for civil government.

14. John Locke
 Believed that people
entered into society
to protect their “life,
liberty, and property”.
 Thomas Jefferson,
the author of the
Declaration of
Independence,
admired Locke.

15. John Locke
 The government’s
main job is to protect
the citizen’s
property.
 If they government is
not providing you
with protection for
your property you
have the right to
revolt.
 Justified the
American Revolution

16. The State of Nature
■ It was pre-political and not pre-
social
■ Man was neither selfish, nor
self- seeking, nor aggressive.
■ Men were equal and free to act
they thought fit, but within the
bounds of the law of nature.

17.  Locke: The State of Nature exists any time
humans haven’t entered into an agreement
with each other to participate in a
government. Even so, it is not chaotic
because of human rationality, and the three
natural rights to life, liberty, and property.
■ It was pre-political and not pre-social
■ Man was neither selfish, nor self-
seeking, nor aggressive.
■ Men were equal and free to act they
thought fit, but within the bounds of the
law of nature.

18. Need for Civil Society
which remained unsatisfied in the state
of nature:
i) The want of an established, settled,
known law
ii) The want of a known and indifferent
judge, and
iii) The want of an executing power to
enforce just decisions.
■ According to Locke, this “ill condition”
was due to three important wants

19. ■ The social contract was no more than a
transfer of certain rights and powers so
that man’s remaining rights would
be protected and preserved.
■ The contract was for limited
and specific purposes and what was
given up was transferred to the
community as a whole and not to a
man or to a assembly of men.

20. Two Contracts
I. A SocialContract which brought
into being the civil society or the State.
II. A governmental contract when society
in its corporate capacity established a
government and selected a ruler to remove
the inconveniences, which necessitates the
formation of the civil society or the State.
III. Locke recognized the existence of 3
powers in the civil society or the state,
legislative, executive and federative.
■

21. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(1712-1778): Argues in
favor of direct democracy.
 He is the great French
writer of the 18th century,
elaborated his theory in
his famous work “The
Social Contract”
published in 1762.

22. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 "Man was born free, and
he is everywhere in
chains.“
 His most famous works
are Discourse on the
Origin and Foundations
of Inequality Among
Men (AKA The Second
Discourse) & The Social
Contract.

23. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 Believed that humans are
born inherently good. He
coined the term “Nobel
Savage”.
 However, once the idea of
private property was
introduced mankind
experienced a “fall from
grace”.
 Individuals with many
possessions saw that it
would be in their best
interest to create a
government to protect their
possessions.

24. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 How can we be free and live together?
Or, put another way, how can we live
together without succumbing to the force
and coercion of others?
 We can do so, Rousseau maintains, by
submitting our individual wills to the
collective or general will, created through
agreement with other free and equal
persons.

25. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 All men are made by
nature to be equals,
therefore no one has a
natural right to govern
others, and therefore
the only justified
authority is the authority
that is generated out of
agreements or
covenants.
 Rousseau advocates
the strictest form of
Direct Democracy.

26.  Rousseau: The State of Nature is a
wonderful, rich environment for early
humans living solitary peaceful lives.
 man in this state of nature was a “noble
savage” who led a life of primitive
simplicity and idyllic happiness
■ He was independent, contented, self-
sufficient, healthy, and fearless and
“without need of his fellows or desire to
harm them.”

27. VIEWS ON HUMAN NATURE
 Hobbes: Humans are selfish by
nature and must be controlled.
 Locke: Humans are rational by
nature, and can by-and-large control
themselves.
 Rousseau: Humans are good and
compassionate by nature, but can
be corrupted by civilization.

28.  Emergence of Civil Society:
■ individuals became a collective unity –
a society
■ “puts his person and all his power in
common under the supreme direction
of the general will and in our corporate
capacity we receive each member as
an indivisible part of the whole.”

29. THE SOVEREIGN
 Hobbes: The absolute monarch (king or
queen)
 Locke: The people (all adult males)
electing a government in democratic
elections
 Rousseau: The people vote on all
matters; the people are the Sovereign

30. EFFECTS OF THE SOCIAL
CONTRACT
 Hobbes: People will live in peace but
without rights except for the right to self-
defense
 Locke: The three natural rights which exist in
the State of Nature will be easier to enforce
by the government. Those who have given
express consent will be bound by the
contract; those who have given tacit consent
can opt out and leave.
 Rousseau: Life will be fair for all if we
employ the general will and set aside our
personal interests.

31. INFLUENCES
 Hobbes: Inspired Locke, and
indirectly, Jefferson
 Locke: Inspired Thomas Jefferson in
his Declaration of Independence
 Rousseau: Inspired Jefferson, to
some extent, but also Kant,
Marxism, the environmentalist
movement, respect for indigenous
peoples, and modern child pedagogy