<P> Locke believed that natural rights were inalienable, and that the rule of God therefore superseded government authority, and Rousseau believed that democracy (self - rule) was the best way of ensuring the general welfare while maintaining individual freedom under the rule of law . The Lockean concept of the social contract was invoked in the United States Declaration of Independence . Social contract theories were eclipsed in the 19th century in favor of utilitarianism, Hegelianism, and Marxism, and were revived in the 20th century, notably in the form of a thought experiment by John Rawls . </P> <P> The concept of the social contract was originally posed by Glaucon, as described by Plato in The Republic, Book II . </P> <P> They say that to do injustice is, by nature, good; to suffer injustice, evil; but that the evil is greater than the good . And so when men have both done and suffered injustice and have had experience of both, not being able to avoid the one and obtain the other, they think that they had better agree among themselves to have neither; hence there arise laws and mutual covenants; and that which is ordained by law is termed by them lawful and just . This they affirm to be the origin and nature of justice;--it is a mean or compromise, between the best of all, which is to do injustice and not be punished, and the worst of all, which is to suffer injustice without the power of retaliation; and justice, being at a middle point between the two, is tolerated not as a good, but as the lesser evil, and honoured by reason of the inability of men to do injustice . For no man who is worthy to be called a man would ever submit to such an agreement if he were able to resist; he would be mad if he did . Such is the received account, Socrates, of the nature and origin of justice . </P> <P> The social contract theory also appears in Crito, another dialogue from Plato . Over time, the social contract theory became more widespread after Epicurus (341 - 270 BC), the first philosopher who saw justice as a social contract, and not as existing in Nature due to divine intervention (see below and also Epicurean ethics), decided to bring the theory to the forefront of his society . As time went on, philosophers of traditional political and social thought, such as Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau put forward their opinions on social contract, which then caused the topic to become much more mainstream . </P>

The social contract theory paved the way for