Definition
Enlightenment thinkers, notably John Locke in 1689 and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1762, argued that people create governments by agreeing among themselves to form one and to protect their rights. This broke with the older belief in the divine right of kings, who were said to rule because God had chosen them. Under a social contract, power comes from below, and a government that breaks the agreement can be replaced. Educated colonists knew the idea mainly through Locke, and they used it in the 1760s and 1770s to challenge British rule.
Why it matters on the AP exam
The social contract replaced the divine right of kings with the idea that government is a human creation with conditions attached. The Declaration of Independence applies it directly: governments exist to secure rights, and the people may alter or abolish one that destroys them, so the long list of grievances against George III works as evidence that the king had broken his side of the bargain. After independence, Americans put the idea into practice by writing state constitutions and then the Constitution, which begins "We the People." Multiple-choice questions often give a passage about government by agreement and ask which idea it reflects, with the social contract or the Enlightenment as the answer and divine right as the contrast.
Connections
- John Locke: the philosopher through whom most colonists learned the idea
- Consent of the governed: the principle that follows from the contract, that rulers need the approval of the people
- Natural rights: the rights that people form governments to protect
- Declaration of Independence: Congress applied the contract to justify separation from Britain
Study it in context
Topic 3.4: Philosophical Foundations of the American Revolution Watch this part