(Written for Prof. Paden’s Modern Western Political Theory [GOVT324] class at George Mason University.)
Introduction
Under social contract theory and its various iterations, the state of nature plays a similar role. It is considered the predecessor to government, an anarchy (or semi-anarchy) that—for one reason or another—people wanted or needed to get out of. Social contract theories seek to explain why people have established governments, and to understand the establishment of governments it is necessary to first understand what existed before and why people wanted to change that preexisting status quo.