USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Enlightenment thinkers believed that governments had a responsibility to hold up their end of the social contract. If a government failed, then citizens would no longer agree to be governed and they would have the right to revolt. This idea is known as consent of the governed.

Detailed explanation-2: -In political philosophy, the right of revolution (or right of rebellion) is the right or duty of a people to “alter or abolish” a government that acts against their common interests or threatens the safety of the people without cause.

Detailed explanation-3: -“Consent of the governed” refers to the idea that a government’s legitimacy and moral right to use state power is justified and lawful only when consented, or agreed to, by the people over which that political power is exercised.

Detailed explanation-4: -Rousseau argued that the general will of the people could not be decided by elected representatives. He believed in a direct democracy in which everyone voted to express the general will and to make the laws of the land. Rousseau had in mind a democracy on a small scale, a city-state like his native Geneva.

Detailed explanation-5: -The purpose of government, Locke wrote, is to secure and protect the God-given inalienable natural rights of the people. For their part, the people must obey the laws of their rulers. Thus, a sort of contract exists between the rulers and the ruled.