Why is social contract theory important?
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Specifically for law enforcement, social contract theory is important to justify the power that law enforcement can exert over the population as a whole (Evans and MacMillan, 2014). The power imbalance, held by law enforcement, is part of the contract that society has agreed upon in exchange for security.
What does the social contract have to do with human nature?
The social contract allows individuals to leave the state of nature and enter civil society, but the former remains a threat and returns as soon as governmental power collapses.
Problems with the social contract theory include the following: It gives government too much power to make laws under the guise of protecting the public. If we do accept the contract and wish to abide by it, we may not fully understand what our part of the contract is or ought to be. Contracts can be unfair for some.
How did the social contract change the world?
The social contract states that “rational people” should believe in organized government, and this ideology highly influenced the writers of the Declaration of Independence. that created it, or popular sovereignty. He believed that every citizen was equal in the view of the government.
Social contract theory, nearly as old as philosophy itself, is the view that persons’ moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live.
What is the basic meaning of the social contract theory?
Problems with the social contract theory include the following: It gives government too much power to make laws under the guise of protecting the public. Specifically, governments may use the cloak of the social contract to invoke the fear of a state of nature to warrant laws that are intrusive.