hobbes was the main person that introduced the social contract theory of government based on unlimited popular sovereignty.
hobbes was the main person that introduced the social contract theory of government based on unlimited popular sovereignty.
who was the main person that introduced the social contract theory of government based on unlimited popular sovereignty?
hobbes
jean-jacques rousseau (1712–1778), in his influential 1762 treatise "the social contract", outlined a different version of social-contract theory, as the foundations of political rights based on unlimited popular sovereignty. although rousseau wrote that the british were perhaps at the time the freest people on earth, he did not approve of their representative government. rousseau believed that liberty was possible only where the people as a whole ruled directly through lawmaking, where popular sovereignty was indivisible and inalienable. however, he also maintained that the people often did not know their "real will", and that a proper society would not occur until a great leader ("the legislator") arose to change the values and customs of the people, likely through the strategic use of religion.
social contract
the most prominent difference between murray rothbard's brand of austro-libertarianism—as espoused in his book, "the ethics of liberty",—and libertarian christianity revolves around his rejection of the social contract theory of government. libertarian christians have bible-based concepts of natural law and the social contract. in contrast, rothbard believes in natural law, but he does not believe in any viable social contract theory. in john locke's "second treatise on civil government", locke speaks of people surrendering natural rights in the process of entering a social contract, or more specifically, trading rights for the benefits of participation in the social contract. he indicates that this is a voluntary and consensual process. but locke fails to show how, once the social contract is established, the offspring of the original contract-makers volunteer into the contract, and thereby perpetuate the consensual nature of the original contract. this is the first of two major problems that rothbard sees in the social contract. rothbard recognizes this flaw not only in locke's philosophy, but also in the organic documents of the united states. the second problem arises by way of rothbard's commitment to a strict "title-transfer" theory of contracts. because of these two problems, rothbard rejects the social contract theory of government. --- rather than rejecting the social contract because of these two problems, libertarian christians use biblical exegesis to solve them. to solve the first problem, libertarian christianity shows how offspring of the original contract-makers either enter the contract voluntarily and consensually, or do not enter it at all (thereby removing themselves from the social contract's jurisdiction). to solve the second problem, libertarian christians hold to a "property-interest" theory of contracts that allows for the alienation of interests in labor and actions, even though they agree with rothbard regarding the inalienability of the human will. the implications of these distinctions are huge, in the view of libertarian christians, because, in their view, rothbard's anarcho-capitalism is inherently dysfunctional without a social contract that is understood to have a perpetual existence.
libertarian christianity