The Role of the State in Protecting Individual Rights

Abstract

The protection of individual rights is considered as one of the primary justifications for the existence of the state. It begins by analyzing early forms of political authority and then discussing social contract theorists—Hobbes, Rousseau, and Locke—to explain how political authority emerged to secure order and rights. It also considers Rawls's modern interpretation of justice and fairness. This study argues that individual rights depend on the limitation of power and just instituitions.