module 9 The UK and its institutions Unit John Locke BEFORE READING Answer these questions. a. Have you ever heard about Amnesty International? b. What are its aims? c. In your opinion, what are the most important human rights? d. Do you think they are always respected? e. What can you do, as a citizen, to protect your rights? www.amnesty.org The social contract Social contract is a phrase used in philosophy, political science and sociology to speak about a real or hypothetical agreement regarding the rights and responsibilities of the state and its citizens, or more generally a similar concord between a group and its members. All the members of a society have to accept the terms of the social contract to stay within society. The social contract, as a political theory, explains the origin and purpose of the state and of human rights. In order to live in society, human beings agree to an implicit social contract, which gives them certain rights in return for giving up the freedom they would have in a state of nature. In this way the rights and responsibilities of individuals are the terms of the social contract. The citizens may change the terms of the contract, if they want to, because rights and responsibilities are not fixed or natural. John Locke, an English philosopher whose ideas triumphed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 (see Module 11), thought people had to contract with one another for a particular kind of government and that they could modify or even abolish the government. This led in 1689 to the Bill of Rights, an English Act of Parliament which was an important step in the British progress towards a constitutional monarchy. The Constitution The UK is a constitutional monarchy, but unlike other countries such as the United States there is not a formal written Constitution. In Britain the Constitution is the whole body of public law, customary as well as statutory, which is continually being modified by custom, judgement in the courts as well as by the elected representatives of the country. The British Constitution developed from the Magna Carta of 1215 and, although it is not written down in one place, it is considered to be a strong constitution. ACTIVITIES 1 Answer these questions. a. Is your country a monarchy or a republic? b. Can you explain the difference? c. What is a constitutional monarchy? d. Have you ever read parts of your Constitution? e. If so, how does it start? f. Read the box about the Constitution and say how the British Constitution differs from yours.