tract is one of the important elements shaping both the Declaration and the Constitution. The social contract holds that political society rests ultimately on a voluntary agreement whereby people in a state of nature agree to give up some of the freedom they enjoy in that state as a way of assuring their security and other advantages in a social structure under law. A contrast is set up between the state of nature and society, though the precise difference depends on one's view of what the state of nature actually entails. For Locke, the state of nature was a state of full natural rights so that there had to be a compelling advantage in any social agreement that would replace it. For Hobbes, the state of nature was a state of warfare, and there was every reason to seek protection
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