Philosophy of the Social Contract

Locke, Rousseau, and Hobbes have some varying opinions about how they approach concepts around political philosophy. This makes sense, given they lived in different areas and were prevalent around some different times, however, many of their opinions and theories heavily overlap and build on each other quite a bit. First of all, they all build their theories off of the idea that generally, all men are created equal. This establishes already the idea that no singular person is wholly entitled to the total sovereignty or control of the people by just being there. It establishes that since there is no predetermined or divinely decided hierarchy, there need to be an agreement on the sides of both the sovereign and the ruled. This establishes that if there is to be a power, it needs to be one with legitimacy, built on interdependence with the people being ruled. However, if there isn't a predestined person or persons entitled to authority, then what is the necessity of a sovereign power at all? All these authors touch on this at some point in the reading, spending the time discussing how within an anarchic society, there is no way to develop since all time is spent working to maintain and defend resources and allocations, or spent trying to steal from others in a disordered setting that pits all persons against each other. Interdependence among people is thus necessary for the basis of a productive, developing society. Furthermore, in order to maintain teamwork of a society and organize goals and stuff, a strong central sovereign power is necessary. I think that generally, this makes perfect since, and also complies with later theories of development and explanations for the history of civilization. Once accepted that anarchy doesn't work, there is a need for a sovereign power, and that the security of a sovereign power depends on compliance of the people being ruled, then you get into what sort of terms and conditions there are for this social contract. This is where I believe that the individual philosophers begin to differ. Although all of them generally agree that there are certain freedoms required for the people to give up to give the sovereign power, how much of that power, and whether or not it should be checked depends. Rousseau believes that it is the people themselves that make up the governments that will check and balance each other, and that legitimacy comes from the necessity for those that make up the government having to focus on maintaining a working system to defend themselves from outside powers or threats. Locke believes that it remains the right of the people to dissolve the government if and when the government breaks the social contract. Hobbes, on the contrary, seems to very strongly endorse the people giving up almost all of their individual powers to the sovereign, and doesn't seem nearly as concerned with that of legitimacy. While I agree with most of these, I have a lot of issues with what I feel is a tyrannical system of government that Hobbes seems to advertise. Then again, Hobbes is super old and supported the English monarchy, so his views within the context aren't outrageous.

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