social contract

[ soh-shuhl kon-trakt ]

noun

1. the voluntary agreement among individuals by which, according to any of various theories, as of Hobbes, Locke, or Rousseau, organized society is brought into being and invested with the right to secure mutual protection and welfare or to regulate the relations among its members.
2. an agreement for mutual benefit between an individual or group and the government or community as a whole.

social contract

noun

1. (in the theories of Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, and others) an agreement, entered into by individuals, that results in the formation of the state or of organized society, the prime motive being the desire for protection, which entails the surrender of some or all personal liberties

Word History and Origins

Origin of social contract¹

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

The social contract I’m talking about is about predistribution—investing early in everyone, especially those who are poor and deprived, and then using that to grow a more productive economy.

From Time

You’ve spent most of your life in multilateral institutions and yet your book is specifically about national social contracts.

From Time

Tax is one lever to rebuild social trust and the social contract between a state and its citizens.

From Time

Now, a growing community of voices is seeking a new social contract between the tech industry and citizens.

From MIT Technology Review

It’s time to update our economic system and our social contract to better accommodate the changing nature of work.

From Time

Recidivism is part of the social contract in this society of freedom and justice for all.

From The Daily Beast

My point, of course, is that a democratic Jewish state is a social contract in the Hebrew language—no more, no less.

From The Daily Beast

As he puts it: “The social contract established during the New Deal era was on the line.”

From The Daily Beast

But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

From The Daily Beast

Instead, he began talking about John Rawls and John Locke, a social contract between the government and the governed.

From The Daily Beast

I am to be introduced to the greatest sower of ideas of the century, the author of the Social Contract, Rousseau.

From Project Gutenberg

The aristocracy encouraged dissertations on the social contract, the rights of man, and the equality of citizens.

From Project Gutenberg

When he wrote of the Social Contract, he did so rather to excuse breaches of the covenant than to emphasize its necessity.

From Project Gutenberg

I only ask you to admit that if such things fall below the comfort of barbarism, the social contract is annulled.

From Project Gutenberg

He had set fire to the building in accordance with the strict principles of the social contract.

From Project Gutenberg