John Locke

John Locke believed that human beings in the state of nature were enjoying an ideal liberty free from all sorts of rules and regulations. The state of nature was a state of peace, goodwill, mutual assistance and preservation. But there was no recognized system of law and justice. Hence the peaceful life was often upset by the corruption and viciousness of degenerate human beings. Human beings were forced to live in full of fears and continual dangers.

In order to escape from this and to gain certainty and security human beings made a contract to enter into civil society or the state. This contract Locke called social contract. This contract put an end to the state of nature and substituted it by civil society. The social contract was no more than a surrender of rights and powers so that the remaining rights of human beings would be protected and preserved. The contract was for limited and specific purposes and what was given up or surrendered to the whole community and not to a single individual or to an assembly of individuals. According to Locke, the social contract later on contributed to the governmental control. The governmental contract was made by the society when it established a government and selected a ruler to remove the inconveniences of ill-condition.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Jean Jacques Rousseau, the French writer of the 18th century in his famous book The Social Contract, wrote that human beings in the state of nature were a noble savage who led a life of primitive simplicity and idyllic happiness. They were independent, contented, self-sufficient, healthy, fearless and good. It was only primitive instinct and sympathy which united them all. They knew neither right or wrong and were free from all notions of virtue and vice.

Human beings enjoyed a pure, unsophisticated, innocent life of perfect freedom and equality in the state of nature. But these conditions did not last long. Population increased and reason was dawned. Simplicity and idyllic happiness disappeared. Families were established, institution of property emerged and human equality ended. Human beings began to think in terms of private ownership.

When equality and happiness of the early state was lost, war, murder, conflicts became the order of the day. The escape from this was found in the formation of a civil society. Natural freedom gave place to civil freedom by a social contract. As a result of this contract a multitude of individuals became a collective unity, a civil society. Rousseau said that by virtue of this contract everyone while uniting herself/himself to all remains as free as before.

There was only one contract which was social as well as political. The individual surrendered herself/himself completely and unconditionally to the will of the body of which s/he became a member. The body so created was a moral and collective body and Rousseau called it the general will. The unique feature of the general will was that it represented collective good as distinguished from the private interests of its members.