social contract assignment

3.2 The Laws of Nature and the Social Contract

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain the central political concepts developed by Hobbes, Locke, Smith, and Rousseau.
• Identify common themes in the ideas of Hobbes, Locke, Smith, and Rousseau.
• Illustrate the ways in which the ideas of Hobbes, Locke, Smith, and Rousseau have contributed to the development of political thought.

Early Christian thinkers conceived of government as a tool for advancing and securing the Christian faith. Ultimately, many Christians concluded that the structure and function of government should be based primarily not on what human reason suggests but rather on the Bible. One early Christian thinker, Tertullian (155–220 CE), argued that the revelations of God should supersede human insights and should serve as the true foundation of political order. Human reason, according to Tertullian, must always be secondary to the Christian approach to life disclosed in scripture. In general, Tertullian’s ideas would cast a large shadow over Western political thought until the early 17th century, when thinkers such as English philosopher Thomas Hobbes once again championed greater reliance on human reason.

Thomas Hobbes

Most of the systems that emerged across Europe after the fall of the western half of the Roman Empire in the fifth century CE were monarchies that promoted and defended Christianity to justify their rule. In the mid-1600s, Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) argued that political systems should be judged based not on their adherence to and glorification of a particular religion but only on their role in securing social peace.

Hobbes argued that humans can advance what he called laws of nature , or rules based on human reason that, if all people followed them, would achieve peace and safety. However, some overarching earthly authority is needed to enforce these laws. In the absence of any political authority—what Hobbes called the state of nature —following the laws of nature would make a person vulnerable to attacks from those who did not follow them. Therefore, it would be to each individual’s advantage to authorize what Hobbes called a Leviathan —an enormously powerful governmental entity—to impose on all people a symmetrical fear of punishment if they break the laws of nature. Based on this thought experiment, Hobbes argued that individuals should embrace a social contract , agreeing among themselves to give their loyalty to a political ruler who could uphold the laws of nature with unrestricted power. 15

English philosopher and physician John Locke (1632–1704) seized on Hobbes’s concepts of the state of nature and a social contract among people, but his conception of natural laws was very different. Locke saw natural laws as a set of moral rules, discoverable by reason and based ultimately on the rationally provable existence of God, that are equally applicable to all. Unlike Hobbes, Locke saw the natural laws, and related natural rights , as placing obligations on everyone, whether or not a government imposes uniform penalties for breaking them. The natural law establishes natural rights and associated duties to others and to oneself. For Locke, one has, for example, a natural right to life, and as a result, all others have a natural duty to respect this natural right. Individuals have a duty to themselves not to commit suicide or let their own natural talents go to waste. Each individual has a duty to respect the natural rights of all other humans.

John Locke, Natural Rights

Enlightenment thinker John Locke profoundly influenced early American government.

Locke used the thought experiment of the state of nature 16 to determine what individuals who are rational but not subject to government would do. He imagined that in the state of nature each person would have the right to punish those who violated anyone’s natural rights. Locke argued that individuals in the state of nature would be entitled to own land only if they mixed it with what they inherently owned—their bodies and their bodies’ labor. However, individuals could acquire land only if doing so did not harm the ability of those who did not own land to live and prosper. 17

Locke believed that in the state of nature a society would emerge in which some owned more land than others without harming them. He argued that individuals would only put the work into owning large amounts of land if they thought they could use that land to derive a profit by developing it to produce things that others value. So, for Locke, the result of unequal land ownership would be a society in which a great number of the things people want are produced.

In the state of nature, individuals would eventually agree to create money as a means of exchange. Owners could then contract individuals to work their land in return for wages paid in money and focus even more on producing items on which people would be willing to spend their wages. Even if landowners acquired all previously unowned land, a commercial society would emerge based on the free exchange of goods and services. The net result, Locke argued, would be a high standard of living for all, one much higher than in the early stages of the state of nature. On this basis, Locke maintained that no one would be harmed by the emergence of an economic system based on private property, even if it resulted in substantial inequality.

While Locke believed that if individuals in the state of nature focused on the natural law and on the benefits of private property there would be peace and prosperity, he argued that it is rational to predict that tensions would likely emerge. Some would become jealous of those with more wealth, and the ability of each person to punish violations of the natural law would eventually lead to chaos. Therefore, rational individuals in a state of nature would agree among themselves to enter into a social contract that would preserve the rights to private property and personal freedom while transferring the power to enforce natural rights to a government whose sole purpose would be to uphold those natural rights. 18

In the state of nature, individuals would have the flexibility to determine the exact form the government should take to execute these tasks. One way to limit the possibility that the government might abuse the people’s natural rights would be through some limited degree of landowner representation in government. This would be a safeguard against abusive property taxation—a forerunner of the principle, popularized in the American colonies, that there should be no taxation without some measure of popular representation. 19

Locke contended that if the government the people created in the state of nature violated their natural rights and the natural law, the right of revolution would entitle the people to use force to punish that government and depose its rulers.

Based on his thought experiment, Locke maintained that the people should demand that existing governments protect rights, protect private property and the right to sell labor for wages, be subject to the people’s right of revolution, and fulfill their duties while minimizing the risks of violating the people’s natural rights.

Applying Locke’s Ideas to Global Trade

Locke’s writings exerted a profound influence on the emergence of the Enlightenment (1690s–1790s), a period in Western history that emphasized the ordering of social, political, and religious life solely on the basis of reason. Before the 18th century, most political regimes enacted protectionist or mercantilist policies—that is, policies that discriminated against other countries’ imports and subsidized exports. In The Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith (1723–1790) applies to international trade Locke ’s principle that the free exchange of goods and services leads to prosperity for all. Smith argues that countries should lower their tariffs on imports, reduce subsidies for exports, and allow a free market to emerge among all nations. This, he argues, enables nations to specialize in those exports for which they have a comparative advantage , or a competitive edge over other countries in producing and selling particular goods, while affording their citizens lower prices on imports from countries that have a comparative advantage in other areas of production. As counterintuitive as that struck many at the time, reason, Smith maintains, shows that the wealth of a nation grows in proportion to its freedom of trade.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Prolific philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau adopted Locke’s state of nature, less as a thought experiment and more as an actual anthropological account of human history. Rousseau argued that “man was/is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” 20 All humans have a natural right to be free and a natural compassion toward others. However, humans are enslaved by the desire for wealth and social status, and that has resulted in the creation of oppressive political regimes.

Introduction to Rousseau: The Social Contract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract emerged at a time of changing relationships between the people and their rulers.

In The Social Contract , Rousseau argues that in order to liberate themselves, a group must first develop a heightened sense of collective identity as they confront a common challenge. Charismatic leaders must cultivate among the people a common religious sentiment—what Rousseau calls a civil religion —that defines citizens as brothers and sisters and teaches respect for religious differences. This civil religion would deepen the sense of collective identity among the population.

With this sense of team-spiritedness in place, the people themselves—and not merely representatives—should assemble together to determine the laws that should govern them. To guard against corruption, laws can be passed only if they apply to all, without exemptions for any particular person or group, 21 and the process of lawmaking must not involve political factions or fancy rhetoric. The people should reassemble periodically to reevaluate their laws to ensure that they serve the people under new circumstances.

Rousseau argues that the laws such an assembly would pass would secure the general will —that is, the true good of each and every person in society. These laws would reduce income inequality and institute a system of civic education that would reinforce the civic religion and seek to cultivate civic virtue, a firmly rooted disposition to hold the good of the political community above narrow self-interest.

Rousseau’s ideas have been extremely influential. Thomas Jefferson (1743–1846) asserted that the people of the United States should meet for periodic constitutional conventions, at which time the whole constitutional system should be judged anew. More recently, political leader and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has argued that the ability to amend the Constitution places a deep trust in ordinary people to revise all the laws as they see fit, as it is a long-established principle that there is no such thing as an unconstitutional constitutional amendment. In principle, anything is fair game for the amending process. 22

One can also see echoes of Rousseau in the public nature of political life. In legal cases, for example, juries must announce their verdict publicly, before the community.

Concerns similar to Rousseau’s over how religious differences within a community might undermine the pursuit of the common good arise in a number of contemporary debates, including debates over public education. In countries such as the United States that have enshrined the separation of church and state, Rousseau’s vision of a civil religion is not possible. What is possible in the United States, however, is for the government to give money to parents that they can use to enroll their children in any private (and often quite expensive) religious school they choose, a program that several states have adopted in the form of educational vouchers. Opponents of vouchers argue that public funds must be neutral with respect to any religious teachings and that the state should not subsidize access to religious education. Some voucher opponents assert that vouchers only foment a destabilizing degree of religious tension among the citizenry—a fear at the heart of Rousseau’s advocacy of a civil religion. 23

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What is The Social Contract?

A good way to understand the idea of a social contract is to think about different sorts of obligation. What can make it the case that I am morally obliged to perform an activity?

The basis for obligation

Take the case of a dutiful son, who looks after his aged and infirm parents. Why is it that the son is obliged to do so? One answer is that the obligation simply flows from the nature of the parent/child relationship – so that the obligation is just a natural one.

The obligation is – it could be said – just ‘hardwired’ into the parent child relationship. On one account, it’s hardwired in by the person who determines all the hardwiring that goes to make us how we are – God. But whatever its source, this explanation amounts to an account of natural obligations.

There is another way of placing oneself under an obligation. Suppose I ask to borrow some money from a colleague. She agrees, if I pay her back, and so I say ‘I’ll pay you back that tenner next week.’ Then – clever philosophical tricks aside – I am under an obligation to pay back the money next week.

Here, I am under an obligation because I have voluntarily put myself in that position, by making a promise to the person who lends me the money. This is a contractual obligation.

Obligations to the state

So there are two bases for obligation. Now, let’s shift the terrain slightly, by asking what makes it the case that I should obey the government? (This is a version of the question – what makes government legitimate?)

Obviously, there can be three answers to that question:

our obligation to obey the government might be:

• a natural obligation
• a contractual obligation, or
• might not exist at all

Historically, the fight has been between the first two of these – nowadays the main debate is between the last two.

Robert Filmer

Amongst those to argue for the first option was Sir Robert Filmer . He argued that the obligation to obey the sovereign was, like the obligation to obey one’s parents, simply a natural fact.

To disobey was to go against nature, and against God, who created nature in this particular way. Natural obligations towards a divinely appointed King provided the basis for government and authority.

But, especially from the middle of the seventeenth century onwards, these sorts of explanation became viewed with increasing scepticism.

Hobbes and Locke

First Hobbes, then Locke, reflected on the troubled years in the middle of the century, and concluded that a different basis for governmental authority had to be argued out.

In place of a notion of natural and God-given hierarchy, they started from an assumption of freedom and equality amongst (usually male, white, property-owning) human beings.

They asked how these individuals could put themselves under an authority. The answer – by agreeing amongst each other to do so.

This answer meant that the limits of governmental power were set by the original agreement.

In Hobbes’ case, these limits were virtually non-existent: he thought that we would contract together to hand over nearly all our rights to a virtually absolute monarch.

In Locke’s case, the power handed over was much more limited.

But whatever the end result, the method of getting there was similar. The philosophers asked themselves, what sort of agreement would be reached by people thinking very carefully and rationally about the arrangements under which they would live. This agreement is the social contract.

Developing a government

If a group of people were to set up an island community they would have to make some decisions – about dividing up the work, about organising living spaces and so on.

It seems very likely that early on these people would have some sort of island meeting, to thrash out a set of rules to govern these activities - maybe to appoint a leader.

There would be decisions to be taken – who is to be leader, and decisions about decisions – how are we to decide who is to be leader? This idea of free individuals coming together, and thrashing out a set of rules is the idea behind a social contract.

The idea is a very attractive one – it’s there in the great thinkers of political philosophy like Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Kant, as well as in contemporary thinkers like John Rawls and Thomas Scanlon.

A patriarchal obligation?

To many modern ears, the social contract idea sounds devastating against the patriarchal account of obligation. The social contract argument corrodes our deference towards, and blind trust in rulers as father figures.

But there are some problems with the argument, which make it vulnerable to the third option – philosophical anarchism. If the obligation I have to obey the law is not natural, but a product of some sort of promise, then I can get out of it very easily by pointing out that I never made a promise!

I never signed up for this!

For most states, there never was a time when the first citizens got together and thrashed out a set of rules. And even if there were, what difference would that make to the obligations of anyone now? Just because my great-great-great-great grandfather made a promise to behave in a certain way, how can that effect me?

Most advocates of a social contract approach take a sharp intake of breath at this point, and say that the contract is a hypothetical device, designed to show what we would agree to if we were in a certain position.

But the problem with this approach is – as one eminent objector puts it – ‘hypothetical agreements aren’t worth the paper they’re not written on.’ Just because I would agree, under certain circumstances to a particular deal, doesn’t mean I have to accept a similar deal now, when I haven’t agreed to it.

The difficulties in involved in trying to make people accept a deal negotiated by others on their behalf are shown by the failures of incomes policies negotiated by union leaders over the heads of their members. A breakdown of trust between trade unionists and the government scuppered the ill-fated ‘Social Contract’ policies of the seventies.

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Bell Ringer: Social Contract

Social compact theory.

University of Notre Dame professor Vincent Munoz discusses the social compact theory in the context of the Founder's political philosophy and the Declaration of Independence.

Description

A social contract (AKA a social compact) refers to an agreement among members of a society, and between governments and the governed, to cooperate in order to achieve social benefits. A social contract identifies the rights and duties of Individuals and their governments within a community; by entering into the social contract, individuals voluntarily forego some of their freedoms in exchange for protections provided by their government. Enlightenment philosophers such as Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau discussed the idea of a social contract to explain the origins of government from what they termed a "state of nature" (a society without rules or laws) and to emphasize the concept of consent of the governed.

Bell Ringer Assignment

• According to Professor Munoz, what document is the "Intellectual architecture that the Founders borrow from or build upon?"
• What are the three basic principles of Social Compact Theory?
• How are those three principles each reflected in American government?
• What might be considered an example of a "modern social contract" (an agreed-upon standard of behavior by members of our community)?
• AP GOV Questions to Consider: How does the Declaration of Independence reflect each of the three basic principles of social compact theory? What's one way each principle is reflected in modern politics and policymaking? How has our interpretation of each principle changed over time? What is a landmark SCOTUS case that connects to one of the three principles?

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• Bell-Ringer: John Locke

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Hobbes, Locke, and the Social Contract

The 17th century was among the most chaotic and destructive the continent of Europe had ever witnessed in the modern era. From 1618-1648, much of Central Europe was caught in the throes of the Thirty Years War, the violent breakup of the Holy Roman Empire. The conflict marked by religious violence between Catholics and Protestants, shameless dynastic maneuvering, famine, disease, and other unimaginable atrocities, still ranks among one of the largest disasters to affect Europe to this day. England and Scotland also became engulfed in a civil conflict in this period between royalist supporters of the Stuart Dynasty and supporters of Parliamentary rights that had religious dimensions as well. Though the war only lasted approximately ten years, the instability it caused in the form of continuing guerilla warfare, famine, revolution, and intermittent rebellion lasted for the next few decades. These decades of suffering and instability produced by these wars raised many questions about human nature, civil society, and most importantly, how to structure government to effectively prevent further breakdowns in public order. This had the side effect of producing two of the brightest political minds in the English philosophical tradition: Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and John Locke (1632-1704). Hobbes and Locke each stood on fundamentally opposing corners in their debate on what made the most effective form of government for society. Hobbes was a proponent of Absolutism, a system which placed control of the state in the hands of a single individual, a monarch free from all forms of limitations or accountability. Locke, on the other hand, favored a more open approach to state-building. Locke believed that a government’s legitimacy came from the consent of the people they governed. Though their conclusions on what made an effective government wildly differed, their arguments had an enormous impact on the later philosophers of the Enlightenment era, including the Founding Fathers of the American Revolution.

Though Hobbes and Locke lived in roughly the same period and witnessed much of the same events, their careers took them on drastically different paths that had a drastic impact on their respective philosophies. Both men grew up in relatively undistinguished families that were still wealthy enough to give them extensive educations, but Hobbes’ father was an Anglican vicar while Locke grew up in a Puritan family. After receiving his doctorate, Hobbes became heavily associated with William Cavendish, who became King Charles I’s financier during the Civil War, and briefly became the future Charles II’s tutor in mathematics. This placed Hobbes firmly on the royalist side during the Civil War, and forced him to spend much of his career in exile after Charles I’s execution. Locke, on the other hand, was the son of a cavalry officer in fellow Puritan Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army, placing him firmly on the Parliamentary side in the war. As an adult, Locke worked in medicine as well as parliamentary politics under the patronage of Anthony Ashley Cooper, known as Lord Ashley and one of the founders of the English Whig movement, which sought to continue the struggle against Absolute Monarchism after the 1660 Restoration of the Stuart Dynasty. Like Hobbes, Locke also briefly faced exile when he was suspected of insurrection in the years leading up to the Glorious Revolution, and so fled to the Netherlands. Clearly, both of these men were greatly influenced by the politics surrounding them, and it is easy to see their debate as a microcosm for a much greater political struggle. Examining the actual nuances of their reasoning, however, reveals a good deal of similarities between the two men.

Hobbes and Locke lay out their arguments with very similar structures, beginning with an exploration into the “State of Nature,” essentially the human condition before the development of civilization, to answer why people develop societies in the first place. For Hobbes, the State of Nature was a state of war, essentially a purely anarchic dog-eat-dog world where people constantly struggle over limited power and resources, a life which Hobbes described as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” The act of forming a state, in Hobbes’ view, was therefore and effort to stem this cycle of violence, in which the population collectively put their faith in a stronger power than their own. There were two key influences on Hobbes in forming this view. The first was his own personal experiences during the English Civil War. In Hobbes’ view, the destruction and mayhem wrought by the Civil War outweighed any form of tyranny the Stuarts could bring to bear. The second was the Ancient Greek Historian Thucydides, whose work on the Peloponnesian War, a decades-long conflict between the city-states of Athens, Sparta, and their respective allies, Hobbes wrote the first English translation. Thucydides believed that states and individuals are ultimately rational actors that will act primarily on behalf of their own self-interest, no matter what higher ideals they claim to aspire to. For him, this meant that stronger actors naturally dominate weaker ones, summed up in one dialogue as, “the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.” Might makes right, in other words. This is the basis for what we now call Political Realism, and Hobbes viewed domestic politics through a very similar lens as Thucydides did on the international level, with some important differences though. Thucydides presented his Realist principles as a justification for Athenian Imperialism, but Hobbes takes a different approach. For Hobbes, people do not submit to a higher authority because it is naturally stronger than they are. Hobbes’ State of Nature is so chaotic precisely because people are essentially equal and will perform the same actions in their self-interest. Instead of a top-down subjugation, Hobbes saw the formation of a state as a collective approach in which people willingly and rationally gave up some of their freedoms in exchange for protection from the kind of anarchy he so dreaded. All of civilization, arts, engineering, letters, etc., was built on this fundamental premise. Therefore a proper government should be as adept at preventing social discord as possible, which meant not dividing the powers of the state divided among different branches, but united under the auspices of one person, the monarch. Hobbes’ philosophy is actually best summed up on the cover of his most famous treatise,  The Leviathan , which shows a massive monarchical figure made up of the teeming subjects that have willingly submitted to his rule to keep the peace.

John Locke, naturally, took a very different stance. For Locke, the State of Nature was not of a state of war, but a state of freedom. In fact, it was a state of purest freedom, where people could act however they wished without restriction, but this created a paradox, as a world of absolute freedom created an environment in which the freedom of one individual could violate the natural rights of another. Locke believed that all people possess three fundamental rights: life, liberty, and property. He argued that these rights are both natural, meaning that originate in nature itself, as well as inalienable, meaning that they cannot be taken away, only violated. Locke also argued that individuals have a moral duty and rational interest to preserve their rights. Another problem Locke attributed to the State of Nature was a lack of impartial justice. When conflict arises between two parties regarding violations of their rights, Locke argued that neither one had the means to decisively resolve the situation peacefully, as both regarded their own position as the true and correct one and were too biased and personally invested to offer an objective viewpoint. Like Hobbes, Locke believed that people were ultimately rational actors who sought to avoid violent conflict wherever possible, and so in such a situation, opposing sides consented to allow a third party to mediate the case, let them deliver a verdict of their own, and agree to hold by that verdict. That, to Locke, is where the origins of government lie, not in the population agreeing to submit to a higher authority, but the population itself agreeing to a mediator that could guarantee the preservation of their natural rights and balance liberty and justice. This is why having the consent of the governed is of such great value for Locke because the government cannot fulfill its basic function if the population cannot agree to its formation in the first place. 

In spite of their many differences, both Hobbes and Locke were both instrumental to the development of what we now call the Social Contract, the fundamental agreement underlying all of civil society. It is fair to say that today we live in Locke’s world rather than Hobbes, with a prevalent emphasis on the importance of human rights and representative government, but that is not to say that Hobbes has nothing of value to add either. After all, the people behind the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution showed a clear preference to Locke’s principles, but that could not stop a Civil War of their own down the line.

Further Reading

Leviathan  By: Thomas Hobbes

Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration  By: John Locke

On the Social Contract   By: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Federalists, War Hawks & The War of 1812

Embargos: Economic Warfare on the Eve of the War of 1812

Fighting for Our Battlefields, and Our Planet

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Assignment of Contract

Jump to section, what is an assignment of contract.

An assignment of contract is a legal term that describes the process that occurs when the original party (assignor) transfers their rights and obligations under their contract to a third party (assignee). When an assignment of contract happens, the original party is relieved of their contractual duties, and their role is replaced by the approved incoming party.

How Does Assignment of Contract Work?

An assignment of contract is simpler than you might think.

The process starts with an existing contract party who wishes to transfer their contractual obligations to a new party.

When this occurs, the existing contract party must first confirm that an assignment of contract is permissible under the legally binding agreement . Some contracts prohibit assignments of contract altogether, and some require the other parties of the agreement to agree to the transfer. However, the general rule is that contracts are freely assignable unless there is an explicit provision that says otherwise.

In other cases, some contracts allow an assignment of contract without any formal notification to other contract parties. If this is the case, once the existing contract party decides to reassign his duties, he must create a “Letter of Assignment ” to notify any other contract signers of the change.

The Letter of Assignment must include details about who is to take over the contractual obligations of the exiting party and when the transfer will take place. If the assignment is valid, the assignor is not required to obtain the consent or signature of the other parties to the original contract for the valid assignment to take place.

Check out this article to learn more about how assigning a contract works.

Contract Assignment Examples

Contract assignments are great tools for contract parties to use when they wish to transfer their commitments to a third party. Here are some examples of contract assignments to help you better understand them:

Anna signs a contract with a local trash company that entitles her to have her trash picked up twice a week. A year later, the trash company transferred her contract to a new trash service provider. This contract assignment effectively makes Anna’s contract now with the new service provider.

Hasina enters a contract with a national phone company for cell phone service. The company goes into bankruptcy and needs to close its doors but decides to transfer all current contracts to another provider who agrees to honor the same rates and level of service. The contract assignment is completed, and Hasina now has a contract with the new phone company as a result.

Here is an article where you can find out more about contract assignments.

Assignment of Contract in Real Estate

Assignment of contract is also used in real estate to make money without going the well-known routes of buying and flipping houses. When real estate LLC investors use an assignment of contract, they can make money off properties without ever actually buying them by instead opting to transfer real estate contracts .

This process is called real estate wholesaling.

Real Estate Wholesaling

Real estate wholesaling consists of locating deals on houses that you don’t plan to buy but instead plan to enter a contract to reassign the house to another buyer and pocket the profit.

The process is simple: real estate wholesalers negotiate purchase contracts with sellers. Then, they present these contracts to buyers who pay them an assignment fee for transferring the contract.

This process works because a real estate purchase agreement does not come with the obligation to buy a property. Instead, it sets forth certain purchasing parameters that must be fulfilled by the buyer of the property. In a nutshell, whoever signs the purchase contract has the right to buy the property, but those rights can usually be transferred by means of an assignment of contract.

This means that as long as the buyer who’s involved in the assignment of contract agrees with the purchasing terms, they can legally take over the contract.

But how do real estate wholesalers find these properties?

It is easier than you might think. Here are a few examples of ways that wholesalers find cheap houses to turn a profit on:

• Direct mailers
• Place newspaper ads
• Make posts in online forums
• Social media posts

The key to finding the perfect home for an assignment of contract is to locate sellers that are looking to get rid of their properties quickly. This might be a family who is looking to relocate for a job opportunity or someone who needs to make repairs on a home but can’t afford it. Either way, the quicker the wholesaler can close the deal, the better.

Once a property is located, wholesalers immediately go to work getting the details ironed out about how the sale will work. Transparency is key when it comes to wholesaling. This means that when a wholesaler intends to use an assignment of contract to transfer the rights to another person, they are always upfront about during the preliminary phases of the sale.

In addition to this practice just being good business, it makes sure the process goes as smoothly as possible later down the line. Wholesalers are clear in their intent and make sure buyers know that the contract could be transferred to another buyer before the closing date arrives.

After their offer is accepted and warranties are determined, wholesalers move to complete a title search . Title searches ensure that sellers have the right to enter into a purchase agreement on the property. They do this by searching for any outstanding tax payments, liens , or other roadblocks that could prevent the sale from going through.

Wholesalers also often work with experienced real estate lawyers who ensure that all of the legal paperwork is forthcoming and will stand up in court. Lawyers can also assist in the contract negotiation process if needed but often don’t come in until the final stages.

If the title search comes back clear and the real estate lawyer gives the green light, the wholesaler will immediately move to locate an entity to transfer the rights to buy.

One of the most attractive advantages of real estate wholesaling is that very little money is needed to get started. The process of finding a seller, negotiating a price, and performing a title search is an extremely cheap process that almost anyone can do.

On the other hand, it is not always a positive experience. It can be hard for wholesalers to find sellers who will agree to sell their homes for less than the market value. Even when they do, there is always a chance that the transferred buyer will back out of the sale, which leaves wholesalers obligated to either purchase the property themselves or scramble to find a new person to complete an assignment of contract with.

Learn more about assignment of contract in real estate by checking out this article .

Who Handles Assignment of Contract?

The best person to handle an assignment of contract is an attorney. Since these are detailed legal documents that deal with thousands of dollars, it is never a bad idea to have a professional on your side. If you need help with an assignment of contract or signing a business contract , post a project on ContractsCounsel. There, you can connect with attorneys who know everything there is to know about assignment of contract amendment and can walk you through the whole process.

ContractsCounsel is not a law firm, and this post should not be considered and does not contain legal advice. To ensure the information and advice in this post are correct, sufficient, and appropriate for your situation, please consult a licensed attorney. Also, using or accessing ContractsCounsel's site does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and ContractsCounsel.

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The Social Contract Lesson Plan

Reading assignment, questions, vocabulary.

For this section, students should read the "Prefatory Letter", and the entirety of Book I of On the Social Contract.

Common Core Objectives

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Book i, prefatory note and chapter i.

In the prefatory note and the first chapter of The Social Contract , Rousseau declares his intentions for the book as a whole. He says that he wishes to discern how legitimate political authority can exist.

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What are the claims made in the Social Contract theory?

The Social Contract Theory asserts that law and political order have been created by people to benefit all.... but that the contract can only be fulfilled if the people and politicians fulfill their parts of the contract. The Contract also asserts...

Social Contract

The oldest and only natural society is the family.

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Study Guide for The Social Contract

The Social Contract study guide contains a biography of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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GROUP 2 ASSIGNMENT CITIZEN AND THE STATE JOHN LOCKE'S SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY

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International Journal of Labour Research

This 2023 edition of the International Journal of Labour Research (IJLR), aims to stimulate reflection on what a new social contract might entail and more specifically the role of workers’ organizations in engaging in the design and establishment of a new social contract within the multilateral system and at national level. Thus, the focus of this issue is both on what such a new social contract may entail and on what to do in terms of its implementation.

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