Machiavelli and the social contract thinkers

Political Science · Political thought. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

Machiavelli broke with medieval thought by studying politics as it is, not as it ought to be. In 'The Prince' he advises a ruler to win and keep power, to be both lion and fox, and to put the safety of the state before private morality.

The three social contract thinkers ask the same question: why should free people obey a government? Each begins with a state of nature, a condition without government, and shows people agreeing to leave it. Because their pictures of that condition differ, their conclusions differ. Hobbes ends with an absolute sovereign, Locke with limited government by consent, and Rousseau with the sovereignty of the people.

Rules to remember

Machiavelli: 'The Prince' (written 1513) and 'Discourses on Livy'; politics separated from ethics and theology; safer to be feared than loved if one cannot be both.
Hobbes, 'Leviathan' (1651): state of nature is a war of all against all; people give up their rights to a sovereign who is not a party to the contract; sovereignty absolute; no right of resistance except to save one's life.
Locke, 'Two Treatises of Government' (published late 1689, title page dated 1690): state of nature has a law of nature but no impartial judge; natural rights to life, liberty and property; government is a trust; right to remove rulers who break it.
Rousseau, 'The Social Contract' (1762): natural man is free and good; property brings inequality; each gives himself to the whole community.
Rousseau: sovereignty lies in the general will, which aims at the common good; it cannot be given away or represented.
Sovereignty in short: Hobbes = the ruler; Locke = limited, resting on the people's consent; Rousseau = the people as a whole.

Common mistake

Students give Hobbes's grim state of nature to Locke. Locke's state of nature is mostly peaceful and has a moral law; its weakness is inconvenience (no settled law, no common judge), not constant war.

Worked example

A writer says: 'Government holds power only as a trust. If it attacks the lives, freedom or estates of the people, the people may replace it.' Which contract thinker is this?

A right to replace the government rules out Hobbes, whose sovereign cannot be resisted.
The language of trust and of life, liberty and estate (property) is Locke's.
Rousseau would speak of the general will, not of a trust held by rulers.

Answer: John Locke, in the 'Two Treatises of Government'.

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