The basis for the american political system is often credited to john locke's social contract. what is the social contract? select one: a. people give up all freedoms, but government has no responsibility. b. government gives up freedom for protection. c. people give up property in return for equality. d. people give up limited freedoms in return for protection.

 d. People give up limited freedoms in return for protection.

Context/details:

Two of the early modern philosophers who wrote social contract theory were Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.  Both of these English philosophers believed there is a "social contract" -- that governments are formed by the will of the people.  But their theories on why people want to live under governments were very different.

Thomas Hobbes published his political theory in Leviathan in 1651, following the chaos and destruction of the English Civil War.  He saw human beings as naturally suspicious of one another, in competition with each other, and often hurtful toward one another as a result.  Forming a government meant giving up personal liberty, but gaining security against what would otherwise be a situation of every person at war with every other person.John Locke published his Two Treatises on Civil Government in 1690, following the mostly peaceful transition of government power that was the Glorious Revolution in England.  Locke believed people are born as blank slates--with no preexisting knowledge or moral leanings.  Experience then guides them to the knowledge and the best form of life, and they choose to form governments to make life and society better.  That was his view of the social contract.

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