Social Contract & State Formation Revision Sheet

📌 Essentials

• The social contract is a voluntary agreement that justifies the origin of the State.
• State of nature: pre-civil society, humans are free, equal, and ungoverned.
• Hobbes views the natural state as perpetual war, life as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, short."
• Locke emphasizes natural law and inalienable rights: life, liberty, property.
• Rousseau believes humans are inherently good; society and private property cause inequality.
• Natural rights are inalienable and cannot be surrendered.
• Causes of conflict: human irrationality (Locke), private property and inequality (Rousseau).
• Hobbes advocates for an absolute sovereign to maintain peace.
• Locke supports limited government with the right to rebellion.
• Rousseau promotes a voluntary social contract based on the general will.

2. 🧩 Key Structures & Components