An image of primitive village living in anarchy
Lesson creators: New Jersey Center for Civic Education, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ
Grade level: Secondary
Four class periods
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
- Collaboratively consider what life would be like in a state of nature.
- Explain why we need laws and government for order and the desire for freedom.
- Identify the elements and underlying values of social contracts.
- Explain how social contracts balance the need for order and the desire for individual freedom.
- Collaboratively draft an original social contract from an historical point of view.
- Discuss and evaluate the quality and effectiveness of social contract with relation to its stated purpose.
- Analyze and discuss the relationship between ordered liberty, popular sovereignty and limited government.
New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Social Studies (2020):
6.3.8.CivicsPI.1: Evaluate, take, and defend a position on why government is necessary, and the purposes government should serve.
6.3.8.CivicsPR.1: Analyze primary sources to explain how democratic ideas in the United States developed from the historical experiences of ancient societies, England, and the North American colonies.
6.3.8.CivicsHR.1: Construct an argument as to the source of human rights and how they are best protected.
6.1.12. CivicsPI.1. a: Explain how British North American colonies adopted the British governance structure to fit their ideas of individual rights, economic growth, and participatory government.
6.1.12.HistoryCC.2.b: Assess the importance of the intellectual origins of the Foundational Documents and assess their importance on the spread of democracy around the world (i.e., Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Bill of Rights).
Inquiry question: How can we balance the need for order and the desire for freedom?
Focus questions:
- What would life be like in a state of nature?
- Why do we need laws and government?
- How did the political philosophers Hobbes, Rousseau and Locke attempt to balance the need for order and the desire for freedom?
- What values are embedded in the concept of a social contract?
- Why is consent critical for a social contract?
Day One, Activity One: Imagine living with no rules or laws
Have your students imagine that they live on an island far away that has no rules, no laws and no government. Or use the image attached as Handout One from We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution textbook for middle school.
ASK: What might happen if there were no rules, laws or government?
Responses will probably include the following: There would be chaos. The strong would take advantage of the weak. There would be constant fighting. Many people would get hurt.
Now you can turn it around and ask your students to evaluate, take and defend a position on why government is necessary and the purposes that it should serve.
After class discussion, conclude that we need authority, rules and government:
- To protect the weak from the strong
- To protect individual rights
- To provide for order and safety
- To settle arguments
- To ensure that benefits and burdens are fairly shared
- Because human beings are imperfect
Day One, Activity Two: Freedomland or Leaderland?
Let’s go back to our imaginary world. Now, you have the option of living in one of two lands:
Freedomland – where everyone experiences absolute liberty. There are no rules, laws, or government. People can do whatever they want whenever they want and are guided by their nature, needs, and desires. There is no agreed upon reward for “good” or “positive” behavior; there is no agreed upon punishment for “bad” or “harmful” behavior.
Leaderland – where one leader determines what is best for the people. There are many rules and laws enforced by a powerful government. People possess no right to liberty and pursuit of interests and desires are discouraged. Order is prioritized to avoid conflict, minimize violence, and guarantee security.
Which one would you choose, and why?
Instruct your students:
- If you have chosen Freedomland, move to the left
- If you have chosen Leaderland, move to the right
- Share with others about why you chose this land and listen closely as they share with you
- Collaborate in forming arguments that may persuade others to come to your land
Designate 2-4 students to present those arguments:
- First ONE argument from Freedomland
- Then ONE argument from Leaderland
- Continue alternating until all arguments are exhausted
- Anyone who wishes to change lands should do so by physically moving to the other land
Thank the students and then ask: Were you frustrated by the restricted choice of only Freedomland OR Leaderland? Why?
Responses will probably focus on the difficulty of deciding between two such extremes, when what is needed is order plus freedom.
Day Two, Activity Three: How can we balance the need for order and the desire for freedom?
Let’s look at what some political philosophers have said. They provided the basis for the Freedomland versus Leaderland activity and can help answer this question of balancing the need for order and the desire for freedom. Each philosopher also has an informative video link from the Center for Civic Education. Students should answer the comprehension questions after information on each philosopher is presented.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
Hobbes - Center for Civic Education
- Lived in mid-17th century England
- In The Leviathan, which he wrote in 1651, Hobbes believed that the “natural” state of humanity was violent because people were selfish.
- He argued that “man’s life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”
- He suggested that this brute situation of a state of nature (“the war of all against all”) could be avoided only by a strong, undivided government, ruled by an absolute sovereign.
- The biblical “Leviathan” is a metaphor for a powerful monstrous entity (derived from the concept of a sea monster)
- Definitely a pessimist. Which land was Hobbes envisioning? Leaderland. He was trying to justify monarchy but ultimately laid the groundwork to undermine it.
Jean Jacque Rousseau (1712-1778)
Rousseau - Center for Civic Education
- Born in Geneva, Switzerland a century after Hobbes
- Disagreed with Hobbes and believed in the inherent goodness of each person: "Man is born free but everywhere is in chains."
- In The Social Contract (written in 1763), he tried to reconcile the freedom of the individual with the authority of the state.
- Rousseau endorsed direct democracy, in which every citizen had an equal responsibility to agree on the laws that governed them.
- He insisted that the state must ensure freedom and liberty of individuals in all circumstances.
- Our optimist. Which land was he envisioning? Freedomland
John Locke (1632-1704)
Locke - Center for Civic Education
- An Englishman living in the late 17th century
- Argued in the Second Treatise on Government (1670) that under natural law, all people have the right to “life, liberty, and property”.
- He believed that the best way for each person’s natural rights to be protected so that everybody could live in peace and enjoy their rights was for each person to agree with others to create and live in a government and give that government the authority to make and enforce laws.
- Locke embraced the concept of representative democracy because political leaders should be led only with and by the consent of “the people.”
- He’s our pragmatist who was trying to find a way to deal with human’s worse impulses but still maintaining individual rights.
- Locke’s suggestion that the best way for each person’s natural rights to be protected was for each person to agree with others to create and live in a government and give that government the authority to make and enforce laws is the basis for a “social contract”.
- Individuals surrender only those rights they do not want others to use against them and retain all other rights. For example, in the theoretical state of nature, everyone has the “right” to kill competitors for scarce resources or to take their property, since nothing is yet right or wrong, legal or illegal. Yet, no one can enjoy the other rights if we spend all of our time protecting ourselves from being killed or robbed. We, therefore, surrender the right to kill or rob in order to more securely enjoy other rights that we retain.
- The idea of a social contract, whereby individuals give up the right to do anything they please in return for security provided by government, including the protection of individual rights, is one of the most dominant theories within moral and political theory throughout the history of the modern West.
Comprehension Questions
- What is a social contract?
- According to Hobbes, why do people need government?
- Identify Locke's three natural rights?
- Why did Locke believe people could replace a government?
- What did Rousseau mean by the "general will"?
- Which philosopher's ideas do you think had the greatest influence on the United States? Explain your answer in 2–3 sentences using evidence from what you learned.
Day Three, Activity Four: Early social contracts
Let’s see how the social contract theory works:
1. Have students watch and discuss Social Contract Theory-Ethics Unwrapped University of Texas.
2. Then, break students into 6 groups (For example, in a class of 30 students, create six groups of 5 people). Provide each of the six groups with one of the following three descriptions. (In this way, each of the descriptions will be the focus of two groups.):
- Description 1 - You are members of a religious minority in your nation seeking to find a place where you are protected and free to practice your religion in peace.
- Description 2 - You are “common folk,” or people who possess varied occupational skills but lack any hereditary privilege or nobility. You are seeking economic opportunity in a new land.
- Description 3 - You are organized and paid for by a nobleman from your home nation who seeks profit. You are his representatives and are expected to direct or lead society in a way that will guarantee your lord’s profit.
From the perspective of the assigned description, students should discuss what values, principles, and ideals should be embraced by, and become normative within, society. Each group should prepare a list of these values, principles, and ideals for shared presentation with the class.
Next, consider The Mayflower Compact (1620) and the Charter of West Jersey (1676).
In 1620, after their 66-day voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the Mayflower, with 102 passengers, anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbour, Massachusetts. The 41 men on the voyage decided to draw up an agreement that outlined the Pilgrims' right to govern themselves and to create a civilized society for the greater good of the colony. This was essentially a written “social contract” and became the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. The Mayflower Compact was the first document to establish self-government in the New World. It remained active until 1691 when Plymouth Colony became part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
In 1676, after New Jersey became divided into two proprietary (administered by the owners rather than the king) colonies--East Jersey and West Jersey--the proprietors of West Jersey prepared a Charter for their colony. The 1676 Charter of West Jersey lasted until 1702, when West and East Jersey were reunited as a royal colony under Queen Anne.
Each group should read the Mayflower Compact and the Charter of West Jersey at the following links:
With these social contracts as context, each group should draft a social contract under which their society can flourish. Be sure to include a stated purpose for society. Each group should then upload their document and present it to the class, explaining their reasoning for each element.
As a class, discuss and evaluate the social contracts created by each of the six groups. In that discussion, address the following questions for each social contract:
- Can this social contract achieve the stated purposes of society?
- What problems might occur because of this social contract?
- What group(s) within society, if any, is/are left vulnerable by this social contract?
After each of the six social contracts have been assessed, conclude the class discussion with consideration of the following questions:
- In what ways do these social contracts differ and what explains those differences?
- In what ways are these social contracts similar and what explains those similarities?
- How important is a social contract to the functioning of a “good society?”
Day Four, Activity Five: The U.S. Constitution
The Founding Fathers believed Locke’s Enlightenment argument that every person has natural rights to life, liberty and property. Thomas Jefferson revised this language more broadly to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence. Look at the U.S. Constitution and identify how it is a social contract. Students should develop a list of clauses and or phrases in the Constitution that establishes concepts such as consent of the governed, powers and limits of government, individual rights and peaceful ways to bring about change. The following questions are helpful for framing student discussion and the development of lists.
- How does the Constitution balance the need for order and the desire for individual freedom?
- Where is the consent of the governed?
- Why is the government separated into branches?
Assessment: Have students prepare a short essay identifying social contracts in school, at work, in politics, in daily activities like walking, driving, etc., and how they moderate our behavior?
Imagine a world without rules, laws or government. From We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution, Center for Civic Education.
The cover of Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes
The Mayflower Compact, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris