1. GOVERNMENT AND
ECONOMICS
NEW IDEAS AND CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY
ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS

2. GOVERNMENT DURING THE
ENLIGHTENMENT
• Before the Enlightenment most leaders were
absolute monarchs meaning they ruled the
country on their own with no say from anyone
else.
• Leaders believed they could rule by divine rights
meaning that God made them the leader and
therefore no one could question their power.
• Many leaders also had strong connections to the
church or controlled the religion in their countries.
• The average person had little say in the
government and no control over their own lives.

3. THOMAS HOBBES
• Hobbes had a negative
view of humanity and life.
• He believed that people
were generally mean
spirited and needed one
strong leader to rule over
them and keep them in
control.
• Hobbes felt government
was the only thing that
kept life civilized. The
government needed to
control the people as much
as possible.

4. JOHN LOCKE
• Locke felt that people
deserved to be listened to
and have their voice
heard.
• Locke said the role of the
leader was to protect
people's natural rights
• If the leader did not protect
the people's natural rights
than Locke believed the
people had the right to
overthrow the leader (this
is a type of social
contract).

5. JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
• Rousseau believed that a
social contract existed
between the people and
the leader.
• The social
contract meant that the
people agreed to let the
ruler be in charge on
certain terms. If the leader
broke those terms than the
leader no longer had the
right to rule and could be
overthrown by the people.

6. BARON MONTESQUIEU
• Montesquieu believed it
wasn't a good idea to have
one person in charge of all
parts of government.
• Montesquieu believed in
separation of powers
meaning that different
parts/branches of
government should be run
by different people this
way no branch could get
too powerful and they
could all keep each other
in check.

7. ADAM SMITH
• Adam Smith had new ideas
about the economy that
became the foundation for
capitalism.
• Smith believed in laissez-faire
which meant he believed the
government should leave the
economy alone and let
business regulate itself.
• Smith believed if the economy
was left alone any problems
would work themselves out and
the nation would prosper.

8. KEY POINTS
• There were many new ideas about government, and not
all Enlightenment thinkers agreed on these ideas.
• Many thinkers did believe people should have more say in
the government and leaders should have less power.
• Ideas such as natural rights, separation of church and
state, and separation of powers are still a part of our
government today and were ideas that America was
founded on.
• Adam Smith's ideas about laissez - faire economies
became the foundation for many modern thoughts about
economics and how businesses should be run.