Contract for the state, conjuration against the state: a collision between the thoughts of Locke, Rousseau and Clastres

Abstract

This paper aims to make a brief analysis of the social contract theories in Locke and Rousseau. Both authors share the concept of a deliberate agreement between humans whose wild condition finishes with this decision. Therefore, the State emerges to protect from a certain way of living: the wildness. In contrast, Pierre Clastres – French ethnologist – enlightens issues about primitive groups in current times and demonstrates that there is a permanent conjuration against the emergence of a political power beyond the control of the social group as a whole. Hence, these groups are societies against the State. Thus, we aim to make a collision between the ideas of Locke, Rousseau and Clastres as well as its current reverberations.