yhteiskuntasopimusten

Yhteiskuntasopimus, often translated as social contract, is a concept in political philosophy that suggests a group of individuals have, often implicitly, consented to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of a ruler or government in exchange for protection of their remaining rights or the maintenance of social order. This agreement forms the basis of legitimate government and societal structure.

Different thinkers have proposed various interpretations of the social contract. Thomas Hobbes, for example, argued in Leviathan that individuals in a state of nature would rationally agree to a sovereign power to escape the brutal and chaotic "war of all against all." John Locke, on the other hand, believed that individuals possess natural rights to life, liberty, and property, and that the social contract is formed to protect these rights, with the people retaining the right to alter or abolish a government that fails to uphold its end of the bargain. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's concept of the social contract in The Social Contract emphasized the general will of the people as the legitimate basis for political authority, suggesting that individuals surrender their individual wills to the collective will for the common good.

The idea of the social contract has been influential in the development of democratic thought and has shaped understandings of sovereignty, rights, and the relationship between citizens and the state. It provides a framework for analyzing the legitimacy of political power and the obligations of both the governed and the governors.