social contracts
Governance by consent
Social contracts are the implicit agreements that bind individuals to a society and its rules.
The concept comes from political philosophy: people surrender certain freedoms in exchange for protection and social order.
More loosely, any unspoken understanding about mutual obligations qualifies: There's a social contract between employers and workers that goes beyond the written terms.
The phrase often appears when someone violates expectations: Cutting in line breaks the social contract.
- dutiesRequired tasks or charges
- obligationsRequired responsibilities
- moral obligationEthics-based required action
- agreementShared position between parties
- cooperationJoint action toward shared aims
Locke · legitimacy · founding fathers · Hobbes · trust · Rousseau · sovereignty · mutualism · common good · contracts · natural law · consent of the governed · federalism · covenant · tacit consent · reciprocity · give and take · fair play
- marriagebride, groom, wedding, husband, wife
- social structureshierarchies, institutions, organizations, communities, group dynamics
- sworn bondsblood oath, oath of fealty, loyalty oath, fealty, blood brothers
social contractstyranny
Oppressive, absolute governance
despotism · absolute monarchy · divine right of kings · authoritarianism · dictatorship
social contractsstate of nature
Hypothetical pre-governmental human existence
anarchy · anomie · lawlessness · every man for himself · social Darwinism
social, contract, society, association, antisocial, contracted, socialize, contractor, contracting