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Locke, 2002, p. 3
Accordingly, natural laws are attainable both through reason and God, and liberty is
what the law of nature allows (Wolff, 1996, p. 20). Locke does not adopt the idea of a
sovereign. Instead, central to Locke’s theory is that even in a state of nature, morality is
effective and enforceable by a natural right to punish wrongdoers.
Within Locke’s state of nature, every man has the right to punish the offender and be
executioner of the law of nature (Locke, 2002, p. 4). Law-abiding citizens, outraged by
an offence, will unite with the victim, and together, having the necessary power, will
bring the villain to justice (Wolff, 1996, p. 23). Morality is effective and enforceable by
a natural right to punishment and citizens become responsible for maintaining order and
for judging the behaviours of others. The systems and institutions required to
accommodate this response are the exercise of publicly justifiable power and the
application of moral standards to legislative power (Zuckert, 1995, p. 64).
Rousseau also justifies the need for a sovereign power based on the need to contain
individual values. His state of nature is concerned with the advancement of humans
from savages to members of civilised societies. In contrast with Hobbes, Rousseau
considers the human capacity for compassion, claiming that we generally avoid
harming others. This is because we have a “natural repugnance at seeing any other
sensible being, and particularly any of our own species, suffer pain or death”
(Rousseau, 1993, p. 47). However, with the development of man from savages to
civilised society come negative elements, such as pride, shame and envy, resulting from
wealth and the ability to compare our own talents with those of others (Rousseau, 1993,
p. 90). The “cries of natural compassion” and justice are suppressed and people are
filled instead with “avarice, ambition and vice” (Rousseau, 1993, p. 97).
Even though Rousseau believed in natural innocence, he ultimately thought that life
without government in a civilised society would be intolerable (Wolff, 1996, p. 32). He
argued that in regard to social relations, there could be a general, collective will of
society to become fundamental laws “obligatory on all the members of the State
without exception”. Rousseau affirmed Hobbes’ assertion that a superior power capable
to ensure compliance is required (1993, p. 106-7).
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