Western Civilization II / Unit 5 WC2 0429 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Hobbes and Locke Compared: Nature, Contract, Sovereign, Revolt
The idea
The exam's political-theory questions turn on one comparison, and four features carry it: what the state of nature is like, what the contract gives up, what the sovereign may do, and whether the people may revolt. Hobbes and Locke share the contract and disagree on everything else.
In practice
Four pairs. The state of nature: for Hobbes, anarchy, a war of each against all in which life is short; for Locke, freedom under a law of nature that reason teaches. The contract: for Hobbes, people surrender their rights to the sovereign for security; for Locke, they lend power to a government to protect life, liberty and property. The sovereign: for Hobbes, absolute, because a divided power invites the war back; for Locke, limited by the law and by consent. Revolt: for Hobbes, never justified, since any order beats none; for Locke, justified when government breaks the law and betrays its trust, the principle the witness links to the Bill of Rights.
Where people slip
Both wrote out of England's crises, Hobbes from the civil war and Locke from the Glorious Revolution, and the exam may ask which event each fits. Hobbes is not a theorist of divine right; his sovereign rules by contract, which is why Bossuet in unit 01 and Hobbes belong to different columns.
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