Hobbes and Locke's Ideas on Sovereignty Literature review

Hobbes and Locke's Ideas on Sovereignty - Literature review Example Citizens are obliged to say okay to authority by their governments due to the fact that the alternative, which is living without some form of governance, would not be ideal. The foundation of a state is based on the relationship between governments and their respective citizens. Advocates of theories of social contract go about explaining the reasons as to why governments are formed by citizens as well as are compelled to abide by the law. The theories of social contract were heavily supported by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Despite this, the theories by the two just about totally opposed on the nature of the power of the governing supreme, human nature as well as on the citizens’ rights against the supreme. Locke employed the social contract to support limited constitutionalism while Hobbes employed the same to defend absolutism.         The Leviathan’s writing began shortly after the start of England’s civil war and was later published in 1651. The primary motives of Hobbes writing his theory of sovereignty are believed to be accounting for a stable political authority. In fact, Hobbes feels that it is the desire for stability that drives men into agreeing to enter into a commonwealth. According to Hobbes, a state of nature has â€Å"no propriety, no Dominion, no Mine and Thine distinct; but (only) that to be every man's that he can get; and for so long as he can keep it." He believed that the state of nature was characterized by a war between every man, and against every man.In addition, Hobbes argued that in a case of a natural state, "every man has a right to everything; even to one another's a body", describing the state of lives of men in this state as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short". This is in line with his argument that though men are equal in their natural sense, continued acquis ition of property results in bad self-preservation. The above-mentioned condition has no room for living large, industry, or private ownership of property beyond what one can secure from others by force. When people begin hunting each other for property, a state of insecurity is born and eventually results in fear of death among the citizens. This fright, together with the hunger for a large living is described by Hobbes as â€Å"the passions that incline men to peace.†