The Enlightenment was an astonishing period of transformation in Europe. During this period, in the eighteenth century, there was a progressive movement that was labeled for its criticism of normal religious, social, and political perceptions. A number of significant thinkers, with new philosophies, had inspired creativity and change. These thinkers had many different thoughts and views about people and how they act, as well as opinions about government. Two famous and most influential thinkers of this period were the English political philosopher John Locke and the French political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. These two men had established some of the intellectual foundations of modern government and both had different views on what the role of government was in a society. John Locke published his Two Treatises on Government in 1690. In his writings Locke argued that individuals had natural rights to life, liberty, and property which the State could never take away because these rights were "inalienable." The natural rights of individuals limited the king's power. The king did not hold absolute power, but acted only to enforce and protect the natural rights of the people. What concerned John Locke was the lack of limitations on sovereign authority. In Locke's time the world was surrounded by constitutional violations of liberty by the monarch in the late seventeenth century. He believed that people in their natural state enjoy certain natural and inalienable rights, especially those to life, liberty, and property. Locke described a kind of social contract whereby any number of people, capable of respecting the rule of the majority, come together unanimously to achieve their common goals. The... center of the card... an interest that makes serenity possible. Others, however, are concerned about Rousseau's thesis that people can be “forced to be free,” that people can be required, according to the law, to do what is right. They see Rousseau's idea as an opening to dictatorship or "totalitarian democracy". Some political realists doubt whether Rousseau's idea of ​​direct democracy is desired or practicable. It is clear that Locke and Rousseau had different views on equality and democracy. Locke believed in reason and self-government while Rousseau argued that decision-making was for the good of the community rather than just the individual. Locke believed that government was responsible for protecting rights and liberties in the state of nature, however Rousseau renounces these rights and states that it is the government's job to promote the general will of the people.