Personalization and Institutionalization of Social Contract: Structuralism in the Social Contract of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau

Abstract

The study applies structuralism's theory to the social contract to examine how societies evolve and undergo revolutionary changes. A relationship is referred to as structural when two units or elements are related in a way that allows them to transmit equivalent identities upon one another. The interpretations of the state of nature and the social contract provided by Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau can be viewed as structural based on this argument. Personalised social contracts refer to those in which a government has absolute power, while institutionalised social contracts refer to forms of governance that are based on accountability, majority consensus, and general will. The paper is based on qualitative analysis with logicism and thematic analysis.

Keywords: Institutionalization, Personalization, Structuralism, Reforms, Evolution, Objective rule of law, Socialization of mankind, Authorization