Declaration of Independence & Social Contract Theory

The idea of 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 in a

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or Rousseau, self-preservation is the first and the most important function of the human being, a function he calls the first law of human nature. The Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776 as a statement of the Second Continental Congress of the independence of the American colonies from British rule. Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft, and ideas were then incorporated from John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. The document was adopted on July 4, and along with success in the American Revolution, the Declaration ushered in a new political age (Carruth, 1991, 138). The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was written by the Marquis de Lafayette. He based the document on the American Declaration of Independence to a degree, but he also had to respond to concerns of the clergy and avoided any call for revolution because he believed it unnecessary and undesirable. This was in July 1789, and revolution would come in spite of efforts by men like Lafayette to avoid it (Buckman, 1977, 143-144). ANALYSIS Both documents are based on the ideas of Locke and Rousseau to the effect that natural law should stand as the principle which protects the rights of individuals against the abuses of government. These are th
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Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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