Post-test

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Question

Passage 1:



Thomas Hobbes was an English scholar and philosopher. He was born in

1588 and later became a tutor to a very wealthy family. Hobbes was one

of many scholars who tried to answer the question, “Why do we have government?”

He was one of the first of his era to discuss the idea of a social contract

between people and their government. A contract is an agreement in

which both sides agree to something in order to reach a shared goal.

In Hobbes’ view, people agreed to give up some rights and power in exchange for protection. But for Hobbes, the social contract was no two-way street. He believed that once the people agreed to hand over power in exchange for protection, they lost the right to overthrow, replace, or even question the government. Hobbes saw humans as naturally selfish and quick to fight. He believed in a monarchy led by a king. That’s because he thought that government would work best if

all the power rested in one place. No three branches for Hobbes!

Many political thinkers—including America’s Founding Fathers—built on

Hobbes’ ideas, especially the idea of a social contract. Hobbes was more

concerned with protection and order than rights. But people like John

Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau changed the focus from monarchy to

democracy—power with the people instead of a sovereign. They began to

see that people have rights that must be protected even from government.

1. Which best describes the central idea of this text?