
Published:
28 September 2023
Online ISBN:
9780191937385
Print ISBN:
9780192845061
Contents
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Historical context Historical context
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Social contract theories Social contract theories
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Comparisons Comparisons
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Chapter
4 (page 46)p. 46C4The social contract: consent of those governed
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Published:September 2023
Cite
Zack, Naomi, 'The social contract: consent of those governed', Democracy: A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions (Oxford , 2023; online edn, Oxford Academic, 28 Sept. 2023), https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780192845061.003.0004, accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the concept of a social contract, which was accepted as the core of modern conceptions of democratic national governments. Social contract theory’s driving insight is that legitimate government requires the consent of those governed. Moreover, early social contract theory offered new ideas about the best form and origins of governments. Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau contributed to the modern theory of the social contract based on the fiction of the state of nature to justify forms of government relevant to their historical circumstances and the interests that they represented.
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