The Social Contract

The social contract is a political theory proposing that the legitimacy of government rests on an implicit agreement between rulers and the people — that individuals surrender certain natural freedoms in exchange for the protection and benefits of organized society. This idea, developed by Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, provided the philosophical framework for modern democratic government.

Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651) offered the bleakest version: without government, human life would be 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.' Rational individuals therefore consent to an all-powerful sovereign to escape this chaos. John Locke's version was more optimistic: people form governments to protect their natural rights, and retain the right to overthrow rulers who violate the contract. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract (1762) took the most radical position: legitimate government must express the 'general will' of the people, and sovereignty belongs inalienably to the community.

The social contract's revolutionary implications became clear in the late 18th century. The American revolutionaries explicitly invoked Locke's theory to justify independence from Britain. The French revolutionaries drew on Rousseau's ideas of popular sovereignty to dismantle the ancien régime. The theory's core insight — that political authority requires justification and must serve the people's interests — remains the foundation of democratic political thought.