Hobbes, Locke,
Montesquieu, and
Rousseau
On the Foundations of
Government
Thomas Hobbes
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English Philosopher 1588 - 1679
Wrote Leviathan - describing the state of nature where all
individuals were naturally free
As a result, everyone suffered from continued fear and danger
of a violent death.
Life of man was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
No laws in the state of nature and no one to enforce laws
Only option was to create government.
People agreed among themselves to lay down natural rights
of equality and freedom and give absolute power to a
sovereign. Could be a person or group.
Hobbes liked a king for consistent exercise of authority.
People had no right to revolt against a king.
John Locke
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1632 - 1704 English Philosopher
Two Treatises of Government
State of Nature - agreed with Hobbes, brutal
Required a social contract to assure peace
Natural right could not be taken away “inalienable” (impossible to
surrender)
Social Contract was an agreement between the people and the king
People had the right (responsibility) to revolt if the king violated
these natural rights
Used by Jefferson in the Declaration
Property was the most important of the natural rights
Governments should “govern lightly”
Favored a representative form of government
Charles Montesquieu
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1689 - 1755 French noble
The Spirit of the Laws - 1748
State of Nature - individuals were so fearful of
violence and war that it caused the timid to
associate with others and seek to live in a society
Then he “loses his sense of weakness, equality
ceases, and then commences the state of war”
No social contract, but the state of war lead humans
to laws and government
Believed in separation of powers
Used in our constitution
Jean - Jacques Rousseau
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1712 - 1778 - born in Geneva Switzerland
1762 - Social Contract Theory
People are good and corrupted by society
State of Nature - free, equal, peaceful, and happy
Ownership of property caused inequality, murder, and war.
Social Contract was not a willing agreement but the rich stole land
and fooled common people into accepting them as rulers.
“Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”
Believed in direct democracy, that the will of the people could not
decided by elected representatives.
People will hold all political power
“We the people” taken from Rousseau
Believed religion divided and weakened the state.
Favored a “civil religion” that accepted God, but
concentrated on the sacredness of the social contract.