Why have a state? Social contract theory
Governments claim the right to make laws and enforce them. Social contract theorists ask what could justify that power.
Hobbes: escaping the state of nature
Thomas Hobbes imagined life without government, the state of nature, as a war of all against all, where life would be 'nasty, brutish, and short'. Rational people would agree to give up much of their freedom to a powerful sovereign in exchange for security. For Hobbes almost any government is better than none, because the alternative is constant fear.
Locke and Rousseau
John Locke thought people in the state of nature already have natural rights to life, liberty, and property. They form governments to protect those rights, and if a government violates them, the people may resist and replace it. Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that legitimate law expresses the general will, what citizens would choose for the common good, so obeying it is a form of self-rule.
Worked example: did you consent?
Most people never signed any contract. Locke suggested tacit consent: by living in a country and using its roads, you accept its laws. Critics reply that if leaving is very costly, staying is hardly a free choice. This objection pushed later theorists to talk about hypothetical consent, what reasonable people would agree to, rather than actual agreement.
Flashcard
Government is justified by the agreement of the governed
Check your understanding
Which thinker argued that people may overthrow a government that violates their natural rights to life, liberty, and property?