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The social contract is a political philosophy concept suggesting that people agree to follow laws and accept government authority in exchange for protection of their rights and maintenance of order in society. It matters because it provides a foundational explanation for why governments have legitimate power over citizens and helps establish the principles that should guide the relationship between rulers and the ruled.
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The original cover of Thomas Hobbes's work Leviathan (1651), in which he discusses the concept of the social contract theory
In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is an idea, theory, or model that usually, although not always, concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Conceptualized in the Age of Enlightenment, it is a core concept of constitutionalism, while not necessarily convened and written down in a constituent assembly and constitution.