Social contract theory says
that people live together in society in accordance with an agreement that establishes moral and political rules of behavior
. … The U.S. Constitution is often cited as an explicit example of part of America’s social contract. It sets out what the government can and cannot do.
The social contract was introduced by early modern thinkers—
Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, Samuel Pufendorf, and John Locke
the most well-known among them—as an account of two things: the historical origins of sovereign power and the moral origins of the principles that make sovereign power just and/or legitimate.
In simple terms, Locke’s social contract theory says:
government was created through the consent of the people to be ruled by the majority
, “(unless they explicitly agree on some number greater than the majority),” and that every man once they are of age has the right to either continue under the government they were …
Hobbes is famous for his early and elaborate development of what has come to be known as “social contract theory”,
the method of justifying political principles or arrangements by appeal to the agreement that would be made among suitably situated rational, free, and equal persons
.
Social Contract Theory.
The authority to rule is granted to the government by the people who make a contract with the government
. Each side has obligations which must be met for the contract to be valid. Thomas Hobbes.
social contract, in political philosophy,
an actual or hypothetical compact, or agreement, between the ruled or between the ruled and their rulers, defining the rights and duties of each
. … They then, by exercising natural reason, formed a society (and a government) by means of a social contract.
Social contract theory says that
people live together in society in accordance with an agreement that establishes moral and political rules of behavior
. Some people believe that if we live according to a social contract, we can live morally by our own choice and not because a divine being requires it.
Hobbes theory of Social Contract
supports absolute sovereign without giving any value to individuals
, while Locke and Rousseau supports individual than the state or the government. … He rules out a representative form of government. But, Locke does not make any such distinction.
Analysis. Rousseau’s central argument in The Social Contract is
that government attains its right to exist and to govern by “the consent of the governed
.” Today this may not seem too extreme an idea, but it was a radical position when The Social Contract was published.
What are the two contracts mentioned by John Locke?
People made two contracts, namely
social and political contracts
. The Social Contract was made between the people themselves. They surrendered only some of their rights- the right of interpreting and enforcing the law of nature. It was only a limited surrender and not a complete surrender of their rights.
Specifically for law enforcement, social contract theory is
important to justify the power that law enforcement can exert over the population as a whole
(Evans and MacMillan, 2014). The power imbalance, held by law enforcement, is part of the contract that society has agreed upon in exchange for security.
Through a legitimate government via a social contract, no war exists between people since all political power is rested in an entity, such as a government, that all people consent to. Hence,
liberty is enhanced for all
.
What is the Leviathan according to Hobbes?
political philosophy
“Leviathan,” comes into being
when its individual members renounce their powers to execute the laws of nature
, each for himself, and promise to turn these powers over to the sovereign—which is created as a result of this act—and to obey thenceforth the laws made by… In political philosophy: Hobbes.
The Social Contract was written by,
Jean Jacques Rousseau
. “Government should only be allowed to govern, with the consent of the governed.” That was said by, Jean Jacques Rousseau.
believed
that human beings needed to live together in what he called a “Social
Contract,” without which we would all be existing in a “State of Nature.” is based in large part on his belief that human beings are basically egoistic (self-interested) by nature.
Social contract theory, nearly as old as philosophy itself, is the view that
persons’ moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live
.
