Enlightenment and Revolutions Practice Test

Under Locke, governments exist to protect people’s natural rights—life, liberty, and property—through the consent of the governed. If a government directly violates those rights or fails to protect them, the social compact is broken, and the people acquire the right to dissolve or alter the government and establish a new one that will safeguard those rights. This is why the circumstance described—when a government violates people’s natural rights—is the condition under which a new social contract could be instituted. Choices that focus on obedience, economic inequality, or foreign alliances don’t fit Locke’s criteria, since they don’t strike at the fundamental purpose of government as a protector of natural rights.