The historical research of the nineteenth century has long since made an end of the social contract as an explanation of state-origins; and with it, of necessity, has gone the conception of natural rights as anterior to organized society.
Laski critiques the social contract theory and the notion of natural rights as outdated explanations for the origins of the state.
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We do not build Utopias; and the attempt to discover the eternal principles of political right invites disaster at the outset.
Where mistakes are made, where there is corruption, or dishonesty, or abuse, it can be brought home forthwith to its authors.
There is no danger that the general strike will ever be other than a weapon of last resort; the occasions when it can be successfully used will be of the utmost rarity.
The theorist of the Revolution is Locke; and it was his conscious effort to justify the innovations of 1688.
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