ABSTRACT
In this chapter we select for comment two seventeenth-century English philosophers and jurists: Hobbes (1588-1679), Locke (1632-1704), and an 18th century Swiss-French philosopher, Rousseau (1712-78). They prepared the foundations of that important segment of Western jurisprudential thought concerned with problems arising from the relationship of citizens with their government. By what right does a government purport to exercise rule over its citizens? Has a citizen a natural right giving him an interest in the maintenance of good government? What are the natural rights of a citizen confronted by a monarch who proclaims his ‘divine right’ to rule? Is there a point at which a citizen may invoke a ‘right’ to rebel against a government which is seen to be depriving him of his ‘basic, natural rights’? The answers given by Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau continue to hold the attention of democracy. Indeed, they may be considered as having developed concepts which have become fundamental in relation to topics such as man’s basic rights, the essence of State authority, and the rule of law.
