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The Social Contract TraditionThe History and Significance of Government by Choice
The social contract has become a hallmark of government in more recent centuries; here's a history and explanation of this significant and important political tradition.
“We the people…do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States.” Stop for a minute and notice how this works: government arises as the result of choice made by the governed as opposed to the force of soldiers or the accident of history (among other alternatives). Much of our social contract tradition comes from three major thinkers: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. By understanding their ideas we can begin to appreciate the unique nature and importance of the social contract itself. Origins of the Social ContractWithin his work Leviathan Thomas Hobbes considered the social contract to be a fundamental necessity. Life in the state of nature (that is, life without government) is “poor, solitary, nasty, brutish and short” as no man is safe in a land (and time) of scarcity. To escape this anarchy and seek a contented life men come together as a civil society and agree to form a contract, a covenant with each other: “to confer their power and strength upon one man, or upon one assembly of men, that may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto one will…to appoint one man or assembly of men, to bear their person, and every one to own and acknowledge himself to be the author whatsoever he that so beareth their person shall act.” (XVII.13) By making this covenant with each other and transferring their natural rights to the sovereign, the people can avoid the horrors of anarchy. The sovereign is granted near-unlimited authority as long as the subjects are protected. John Locke also considered the social contract to be the basis for government. As described in The Second Treatise of Government, however, life in the state of nature simply means people living freely while respecting everyone else’s natural rights and without a social contract as the basis of government; if and when such oppression occurs then life devolves into a state of war. In order to escape this state of war and live a comfortable life men form a civil society together, which in turn designs and agrees to a government based upon a social contract. In this version of the social contract, man “divests himself of his natural liberty, and puts on the bonds of civil society…agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community” (§95) and by submitting to majority rule forms a government designed to protect their rights. When the government is “dissolved”—such as altering the legislature—the people themselves (as the source of government) may remove or change the government (§§211-220). In a third version of the social contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau includes one fundamental change: the importance of community. As men came together into society they begin to need and depend on each other in mind such as the importance of vanity (and with it, the opinions of others); rather than let such dependence destroy relations between people (e.g. the thirst for revenge) Rousseau sought to harness it and transform it into brotherhood (in French, fraternité). As he writes in The Social Contract people unite into a social contract and design a government in which the people rule and are ruled in return. SourcesJohn Locke. 2003 [1690]. “Second Treatises of Government, ” in Two Treatises of Government. Ed. Peter Laslett. New York: Cambridge University Press. Thomas Hobbes. 1994 [1668] Leviathan. Ed. Edwin Curley. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 1978 [1762]. On the Social Contract. ed. Roger D. Masters. New York: St. Martin's.
The copyright of the article The Social Contract Tradition in Political Philosophy is owned by John Francis Ryan. Permission to republish The Social Contract Tradition in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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