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social contract
/ˌsəʊʃl ˈkɒntrakt/
noun
noun: social contract; plural noun: social contracts; noun: social compact; plural noun: social compacts
/ˌsəʊʃl ˈkɒntrakt/
noun
noun: social contract; plural noun: social contracts; noun: social compact; plural noun: social compacts
- an implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection. Theories of a social contract became popular in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries among theorists such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as a means of explaining the origin of government and the obligations of subjects.