Unit 2: Contractualists
Teaching Hours for this Unit: 6
Syllabus coverage in this unit
2.1 Thomas Hobbes: Concept of Absolute Monarchy · 2.2 John Locke: Concept of Liberal Democracy · 2.3 Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Concept of Popular Sovereignty (General Will)
The method shared by all three: the state’s authority is justified by a social contract — the unanimous agreement of free and equal individuals. Everything else differs: the state of nature’s character, what is surrendered, who is sovereign — and from those differences flow absolutism (Hobbes), liberal democracy (Locke) and popular sovereignty (Rousseau).
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