Social Contract

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Social Contract

The social contract is a very important part of our lives. Having been brought into light in the 18th century by people like John Locke it completely changed the form of governance that existed then in most places as monarchies. This can be said to be one of the most important parts of freedom as people came to understand that the government had a role to play towards them and they had a role to play towards the government and therefore the social contract (Williams & McShane, 2018). In almost every democratic country the concept of a social contract is enforced in that people vote for their leaders because they promise to work on the different societal issues presenting themselves to the masses and when they win they are supposed to work on the issues they promised within the times they have in their different posts (Crawford, 2020). Therefore it is a contract between the people and the elected. This is a perfect example in the contemporary world of a social contract.

Life without some form of social contract would be very demanding and tiresome since only those at the top get to decide what they want to do with the rest of the individuals at the bottom (Jahn, & Brühl, 2018). This also means that most leadership would be dictatorship or monarchial which to most people would not be functional to help the common citizen. Therefore the social contract is a positive aspect of our current society.

References

Crawford, C. (2020). Access to Justice for Collective and Diffuse Rights: Theoretical Challenges and Opportunities for Social Contract Theory. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 27(1), 59-86.

John, J., & Brühl, R. (2018). How Friedman’s view on individual freedom relates to stakeholder theory and social contract theory. Journal of Business Ethics, 153(1), 41-52.

Williams III, F.P., & McShane, M.D. (2018). Criminological theory (7th ed.). New York: Pearson.