John Locke, Social Contract, and Natural Rights

Why should you obey a government at all? Nobody asked you to sign anything. Yet you pay taxes and follow laws. In 1689, John Locke gave a famous answer. Government is legitimate only because the people agree to it, and only to protect rights they already hold.

In this lesson, we study Locke’s social contract theory. We see his natural rights and his state of nature. We compare him with Hobbes. We meet his right of revolution and his labour theory of property. We then see how Rawls revived the idea.

1Who was John Locke?

John Locke was an English philosopher and physician. He was born on 29 August 1632 and died on 28 October 1704. He is widely seen as one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment.

People often call him the “father of liberalism”. His best-known political work is Two Treatises of Government. It was published anonymously in 1689, after the Glorious Revolution.

• Locke: 1632–1704, an English philosopher.
• Called the father of liberalism.
• Two Treatises of Government, 1689.

2What are natural rights?

Locke began before government. He imagined a state of nature, where no ruler or law yet exists. Even there, he said, people already hold certain rights. These are rights to life, liberty and property.

They hold these rights simply by being human. No government granted them. So no government can rightly take them away.

• In the state of nature people already have rights.
• They are life, liberty and property.
• Rights come from being human, not from the state.

3How does government arise?

If people already have rights, why form a government? Locke’s answer is protection. In the state of nature, there is no neutral judge. Disputes are hard to settle. So people agree to set up a government to guard rights they already own.

This is the social contract. Its key point is consent. A government’s authority rests on the consent of the governed. Government does not create rights. It exists to protect them.

Locke wrote partly against the divine right of kings. His reply was bold. Legitimate authority can rest only on the reasoned consent of free and equal individuals.

• People form government to protect existing rights.
• Authority rests on consent of the governed.
• Locke answered the divine right of kings.

4How does Locke differ from Hobbes?

Thomas Hobbes wrote earlier. His book Leviathan appeared in 1651, during the English Civil War. He argued for a social contract too. But his picture was dark.

For Hobbes, the state of nature was a war of all against all. Life there was “nasty, brutish and short”. Only an all-powerful sovereign could end the chaos.

Locke’s picture is gentler. His state of nature is comparatively peaceful and respects rights. So he argues for a limited government, bound by consent. The same contract idea leads to very different governments.

• Hobbes: war of all against all, so a strong sovereign.
• Locke: a milder state of nature, so a limited government.
• Leviathan came in 1651.

5When may people remove a government?

Locke added a hard edge. A government that keeps violating the rights it was formed to protect loses its claim to obey. In limited circumstances, the people may overthrow it. This is the right of revolution.

Note the word “limited”. Locke did not praise casual rebellion. The right is a last resort against persistent abuse. It is the other side of consent. What the people grant, they can withdraw.

• Persistent violation of rights removes the claim to obedience.
• The people may alter or abolish the government.
• It is a last resort, not a licence for rebellion.

6What is the labour theory of property?

Locke also explained how things become private property. A person gains rightful ownership by mixing their labour with what nature provides. Pick the fruit, till the field, and it becomes yours.

This idea shaped later classical liberal and economic thought. It also explains why property sits beside life and liberty among Locke’s natural rights.

• Ownership comes from mixing your labour with nature.
• Called the labour theory of property.
• It influenced classical liberal thought.

7What was Locke’s influence?

The American Declaration of Independence names “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Historians note that Locke’s thinking influenced its drafting. The echo of “life, liberty and property” is easy to hear.

His wider legacy is the idea of consent-based, limited government. Rulers must answer to the people. Power is held for a purpose.

• Locke’s thought influenced the Declaration of Independence.
• Legacy: limited, consent-based government.

8How did Rawls revive the idea?

In 1971, John Rawls published A Theory of Justice. He offered a moral theory as an alternative to utilitarianism. He revived and reworked social contract thinking.

His tool was a thought experiment. In the original position, people choose the rules of society behind a veil of ignorance. They do not know if they will be rich or poor, in the majority or the minority.

Since no one knows their own place, they must choose fair rules. The method builds fairness into the choice itself.

• Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 1971.
• Thought experiment: the original position.
• The veil of ignorance guarantees fair rules.

9What is the main criticism?

The standard objection is simple. The contract is historically fictional. No one ever signed it. So how can it bind anyone?

Most defenders agree. They do not claim it happened. They treat it as a thought experiment. It asks what principles would justify a government’s authority.

• Charge: the contract is historically fictional.
• Reply: it is a thought experiment about justification.

10Why does it matter in public service?

Lockean thinking gives public authority a clear shape. It is a trust that citizens hand over for a limited purpose. Officials hold power for the people, not for themselves.

This is why officials must answer to the public. Accountability is not a favour. It is the condition that makes authority legitimate.

• Public authority is a trust for a limited purpose.
• Officials answer to the public.
• Accountability makes authority legitimate.

11What are the exam traps?

• Locke’s rights are life, liberty and property.
• Hobbes wants a strong sovereign. Locke wants limited government.
• Government protects rights. It does not create them.
• Rousseau wrote The Social Contract, not Locke.
• Rawls brings the veil of ignorance.