Which thinker argued for natural rights and influenced constitutional thinking, as seen in the Second Treatise?

• A. Rousseau
• B. John Locke
• C. Montesquieu
• D. Hobbes

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is natural rights and how they shape government and its limits. John Locke argued that people are born with natural rights—life, liberty, and property—and that government exists mainly to protect those rights. In his Second Treatise of Government, he describes the social contract as an agreement among people to form a government that has limited authority and is grounded in the consent of the governed. When a government fails to protect natural rights or rules by arbitrary power, people have the right to alter or dissolve it. This line of thinking laid a foundation for constitutional frameworks that emphasize limited government, civil rights, and the rule of law—clear influences on how modern constitutions are designed.

Other thinkers contributed important ideas too—Hobbes emphasized the need for a strong sovereign to avoid a chaotic state of nature; Rousseau spoke of the general will; Montesquieu highlighted the separation of powers. But Locke’s explicit linking of natural rights to the legitimacy and limits of government is the connection most directly reflected in constitutional thinking.