Locke's Social Contract

Social contract theory symbolises the view that any person’s moral or political obligations are largely dependent on an agreement or contract among them to form a society to live in. It is the feature of capitalist way of life. Along with other things, state also is an outcome of the contract.

Contract symbolises the freedom of choice. In any society, the people come together and form a constitution- which represents their will. It shows that the law and rules are not enforced on them by some super-natural authority but decided by themselves. The constitution of modern states is considered as the outcome of this process of social contract.

Social contract theory was first proposed by Thomas Hobbes. After him, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau is known as the best proponents of this theory.

For Locke, state of nature was the state of peace, goodwill and mutual assistance. This was opposite tot hat of Hobbes, who called the man in state of nature to be utilitarian, individualistic and power seeking.

For Locke, in the state of nature- every person was allowed to have maximum liberty and individualism.

This situation cannot be convenient and thus arose the need of a common authority for the sake of definitive laws.

Locke talked about 2 contracts- the outcome of 1st contract is the civil society; whereas the outcome of the 2nd contract is the government. In case of civil society, people have given formal recognition to each other’s rights. Thus, the rights of man were recognised. Similarly, in case of government, Locke said that some people are elected as representatives among members of civil societies which will ultimately form the government. So, Locke also talked about representative democracy and majoritarianism democracy.

Further, Locke also stressed on the fact that, under the contract, people have only transferred 3 rights to the government- right to make laws, to execute laws and to adjudicate laws. Parallely, people have not transferred 3 basic rights- right to life, liberty and property. If the government tries to deprive any man of the above rights- people also have the right to revolt against the government.

Locke believed that the government was the basis for sovereignty and the state was also the guarantor of Individual’s liberty. So, he believed that the power was actually surrendered not to any sovereign body but to the community itself.