The social contract theory details an agreement between the government of a nation and its people, in which the people agree to give up some liberties (these vary depending on the philosopher) in return for security, protection of rights, or some good stuff similar to that.

The three most widely known social contract philosophers are John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. They each provide a theory for the nature of humanity, which influences their beliefs about the ideal formation of society. All three philosophers brought their beliefs forth during the Enlightenment.

All three social contracts describe a move from the state of nature, which is basically a hypothetical state of existence in which there is no government and people are free to do whatever they want.

John Locke believed that humans were by nature rational beings. In the state of nature, things would function fairly smoothly, but there would inevitably be conflict due to a limited number of resources and lack of accessibility. The way to deal with this, believed Locke, was to form a government. The government would protect the inalienable rights of human beings, known as natural rights. According to Locke, these natural rights consisted of life, liberty, and property. Although people would have to give up some of their extreme liberties in order not to infringe upon the rights of others, people would have a large amount of freedom in Locke's ideal government. Locke believed that at the point when the government failed to uphold the natural rights of its citizens, the citizens had an obligation to overthrow the government and establish a new, just one.

Thomas Hobbes was probably Locke's antithesis. He believed that people were inherently evil by nature. In the state of nature, according to Hobbes, life was "nasty, brutish, and short." Because of this, people would run around wildly, killing other people out of self-interest, stealing their property. Hobbes believed that the best way to deal with this was to have a totalitarian ruler who ruled by force, as force was the only way to keep humans' evil tendencies in check. The social contract would form when the ruler used force to create the government, and it would never end.

And finally, Rousseau, my favorite. Rousseau, unlike the Englishmen Hobbes and Locke, was French. My Lincoln-Douglas debate instructor liked to talk about how Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a sexy name. But anyway. The reason I like Rousseau so much was that he believed that humans were inherently good, but corrupted by society. (See? It's not our fault!) He wasn't explicit about exactly HOW society corrupted these people, but he believed that the best way to minimize this corruption was to have a government that complied with the citizens' general will, or the collective beliefs and desires of society. Rousseau did not believe that the government had any purpose other than to serve the interests of its people; Like Locke, Rousseau believed that the people were free to get out of the government once it failed to achieve its purpose.