A social contract is an informal agreement shared by all in a society where they give up a certain freedom for security. In the social contract system, people willingly sacrifice a handful of their inherent freedoms to respect the authority and power of an established government. 🔊 In the philosophy of the social contract, people create governments and thus restrict their own freedoms because they want the protection of a governmental body. 🔊 Since no government can function without the acceptance of its authority by its people, the voluntary acceptance of that authority in exchange for less freedom is called a social contract. 🔊 Many philosophers believe in the idea of the social contract, in which people sacrifice freedom for security to government. 🔊 The idea that people respect the laws of a government and respect its authority in exchange for the security and stability of that government is known as the social contract. 🔊 The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau popularized the idea of the social contract in the 1700s, but it is equally applicable today. As members of a society, we accept the social contract – we cooperate with each other and obey the laws of society. We also give up certain freedoms because we want the protection that society can offer. The founders of the United States believed that the social contract made citizens powerful and gave them a collective voice in their government. the philosophical idea that people leave their freedoms to a government in exchange for the security and stability they provide. .