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The social contract

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    The social contract

    People voluntarily delegate their decision-making powers to a representative government, usually in modern times by means of election, but what mechanisms exist to ensure rights and obligations are maintained? Socrates held that the state was only required to provide civilisation and security, in return for the obedience of the citizen, fitting into Plato's ideal of a benevolent tyrant, common in ancient Greek "democracies". Hobbes declared that a sovereign could lose authority if too weak to provide good governance, but that his subjects had no power to force his removal. In contrast, Locke believed the state composed a collective surrender of individual power, and their capacity to remove legitimacy inspired the English Bill of Rights, American War of Independence and French Revolution.

    But, once an election has been held, is the popular end of the contract finished, and do the electorate have the power to protest against unpopular laws, except through courts to determine legality? Should governmental obligations be codified in national constitutions? Can a government be determined to have lost political legitimacy even before the holding of a popular vote? And can communist governments be held to be respecting social contracts, in the absence of political choice?
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