Social contracts are theories that define the relationship between establishment/state and individual. Social contracts are theories that legitimise authority of the state over the individual.
Inherently, it is the idea that people like us forego some of our natural freedoms in order to have a few guaranteed assurances, resulting in the formation of public establishments like government. We don’t do it explicitly most of the times, but tacitly.
Have you ever wondered where did this structure of government come from? What would happen to humanity in the absence of governments? This requires us to ask an even more fundamental question about what is the fundamental human condition in absolute state of nature and how to better it
Mozi’s Theory of Moral State
Chinese philosopher Mozi was the first one to give this question a thought. According to him, each person has their own moral rules (yi), and as a result of this disagreement of values and not self-interest, is a violent social disorder present amongst us.
Everyone is not indulged in self-interest but is doing what they feel is right. It’s just that everyone’s definitions of what is right don’t match.
This plurality of moral standards leads to contention, belligerence, and wasted resources.
Mozi’s philosophy centralizes on the idea of morality, and hence, his solution also hinges strongly on morality.
Mozi advocates for a ruler but doesn’t give a lot of description about how a leader is selected.
Mozi doesn’t envision a social contract but gives utmost legitimacy to the sovereign because social order is of paramount value.
Therefore, the purpose of a sovereign or government, in Mozi’s eyes- is to achieve a social order by promulgating a unified conception of morality. A moral standard that can guide the actions of the state, society, and individual activities.
Hobbes’ Leviathon
One of the most celebrated political philosophers ever, Thomas Hobbes, gave another theory in his treatise on human condition and society, Leviathan.
It is a state of perfectly private judgment, a state of absolute equality. Everyone is on their own. Owing to the scarcity of resources, people will attack each other.
Fearing an attack from others, people will launch pre-emptive attacks. That essentially means a natural state of humans is a state of continuous conflict and war.
Hobbes’ proposes establishing sovereignity in order to remove this basic fear between individuals and groups.
Sovereignity can be established two different ways- sovereignity by institution and sovereignity by acquisition.
SBI is when a lot of people mutually agree to obey a common authority.
SBA is when people agree to obedience under a promise of protection of the iminent conqueror.
A government/sovereign gets formed in this process. Hobbes advocates for this government to have absolute authority- undivided, unlimited power. Including and not limited to legislation, adjudication, enforcement, taxation, war-making, etc.
He constitutes a list of all such powers under essential rights of sovereignity. He also retains with subjects a right of self-defense against sovereignity and a few more enumerated as true liberties of subjects.
Rousseau’s Social Contract Theory
Rousseau’s Second Discourse describes a history of progress of humans from a State of Nature into a civil society.
In the natural state, nature was abundant and population was small; and thus, nature was able to address everyone’s needs. People rarely saw each other, there was no reason for conflict or competition.
As population increased, people started living in families, and then in small communities. Labor responsibilities got divided, newer discoveries made life easier and gave people free-time to make comparison with others, public values, envy and so on.
As per Rosseau, the advent of the idea of public property is humanity’s fall from grace out of the State of Nature. Ownership of private property, and then development of social classes. Those with private property took initiatives to form governments to protect private property from being acquired by force.
The contract which guarantees equality for everyone inherently is to strengthen the inequalities produced by private property.
Rousseau’s The Social Contract targets to respond to the sorry state of affairs the society is in. It starts with- Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.
The fundamental philosophical question that Rosseau aims to answer is- how can we be free and live together? How to reconcile freedom of individual and authority of state?
Gist of the proposed contract is that people can only experience true freedom if they lived in a civil society that ensured rights and well being of its subjects. Subjects need to submit to general will transcending individual will.
This general will creates laws, but it needs an executive function (say government) to enforce these laws, which can take any form. Government attains its right to exist and to govern by “the consent of the governed.”