Get Hobbes Locke Montesquieu And Rousseau On Government

The Constitutional Rights Foundation has characterized Locke as a “reluctant” democrat because he favored a representative government, Montesquieu a “balanced” democrat who favored a combination of a king checked by a legislative body, and Rousseau an “extreme” democrat because he believed everyone should vote.

Hobbes theory of Social Contract supports absolute sovereign without giving any value to individuals, while Locke and Rousseau supports individual than the state or the government.

Montesquieu concluded that the best form of government was one in which the legislative, executive, and judicial powers were separate and kept each other in check to prevent any branch from becoming too powerful. He believed that uniting these powers, as in the monarchy of Louis XIV, would lead to despotism.

These thinkers valued reason, science, religious tolerance, and what they called “natural rights”: life, liberty, and property. Enlightenment philosophers John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau all developed theories of government in which some or even all the people would govern.

Based on these excerpts, Montesquieu believed that government should be separated into three branches with different roles to protect liberty, but Locke was more concerned with protecting the individual liberties of people, like property, peace, and safety, than about the structure of the government itself.

Hobbes called this agreement the “social contract.” Hobbes believed that a government headed by a king was the best form that the sovereign could take. Placing all power in the hands of a king, Hobbes argued, would mean more sure and consistent exercise of political authority.

To Locke, a Government existed, among other things, to promote public good, and to protect the life, liberty, and property of its people. For this reason, those who govern must be elected by the society, and the society must hold the power to instate a new Government when necessary.

He conceived the idea of separating government authority into the three major branches: executive, legislative and judicial. This perspective significantly influenced the authors of the Constitution in establishing laws and division of duties, and also in the inclusion of provisions to preserve individual liberties.