3.2 Natural Rights, Popular Sovereignty & the Social Contract

Why This Topic Matters

The GED blueprint's CG.b: "Principles that have contributed to development of American constitutional democracy" lists nine specific principles the test can draw questions from, and two of the most heavily tested are covered here: natural rights philosophy (CG.b.1) and popular sovereignty and consent of the governed (CG.b.2). These are not abstract philosophy trivia — they are the ideas the Founders explicitly built into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the GED test loves to quote those founding documents directly and ask you to match a phrase to the underlying principle. (The remaining CG.b principles — constitutionalism and rule of law — follow in the next section, with majority rule, checks and balances, separation of powers, individual rights, and federalism covered in later chapters.)

Core Definitions

The Social Contract

Social contract theory holds that a government's legitimate authority comes from an implicit agreement among individuals: people give up some of their unrestricted freedom in exchange for the protection of their remaining rights and for social order. Three philosophers shaped how the American Founders thought about this bargain.

Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651) painted a grim picture of the "state of nature" — life without government — as a "war of all against all" in which life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." For Hobbes, people rationally agree to hand over nearly all of their rights to a single, powerful sovereign in exchange for order and protection from chaos.

John Locke (Two Treatises of Government, 1689) took a more optimistic view. He argued that people are born with natural rights — rights that exist independently of government — and that government's only legitimate job is to protect those pre-existing rights. Crucially, Locke argued that if a government violates the natural rights it is supposed to protect, the people retain a right of revolution: they may alter or abolish that government. Locke's language directly shaped Thomas Jefferson's writing in the Declaration of Independence.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract, 1762) emphasized that legitimate political authority rests on the collective "general will" of the people as a community, reinforcing the idea that sovereignty belongs to the people rather than to any single ruler.

Natural Rights Philosophy (CG.b.1)

Natural rights are rights that belong to every person simply because they are human — they are not granted by, and cannot legitimately be taken away by, any government. This contrasts with civil (legal) rights, which are specific protections created and enforceable by law (such as the rights enumerated later in the Bill of Rights). Because natural rights exist independently of government, a government can only protect or violate them — it cannot be the source of them.

The Declaration of Independence states this directly: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Notice that Jefferson swapped Locke's third right, "property," for "the pursuit of Happiness" — a substitution the GED test frequently highlights when comparing Locke's original phrasing to the Declaration's wording.

Popular Sovereignty and Consent of the Governed (CG.b.2)

Popular sovereignty means that ultimate political authority rests with the people as a whole — not with a monarch, a religious authority, or a small ruling class. Consent of the governed is the specific mechanism that makes this principle real in practice: a government's power to rule is legitimate only when the people it governs have agreed, directly or through elections, to accept that authority.

Both ideas appear explicitly in the Declaration of Independence: "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." The Constitution's Preamble opens the same way: "We the People of the United States… do ordain and establish this Constitution" — a direct assertion that the document's authority comes from the people themselves, not from a king or a governing elite.

Exam Scenario

A GED item might present this excerpt: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…" and ask which principle it illustrates. The correct answer is natural rights philosophy — the passage asserts that rights exist prior to and independent of government. A different item might quote "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" and ask the same kind of question — that phrase illustrates consent of the governed, a distinct (though related) principle from natural rights.

Common Traps

• Treating "natural rights" and "civil rights" (or "the Bill of Rights") as the same thing. Natural rights are the pre-political, philosophical rights invoked in the Declaration; civil rights are specific legal protections enumerated later by law or constitutional amendment (covered in Chapter 7).
• Crediting Jefferson with originating "life, liberty, and property." That phrase and the underlying theory both come from Locke; Jefferson adapted it, replacing "property" with "the pursuit of Happiness."
• Collapsing "popular sovereignty" and "consent of the governed" into one idea. Popular sovereignty is the general principle that the people are the ultimate source of authority; consent of the governed is the specific practical mechanism (voting, ratification) through which that authority is exercised and legitimized. The GED test may ask you to distinguish which term a specific phrase illustrates.

Takeaways

• Natural rights (CG.b.1) are rights inherent to all people that government can only protect or violate, never grant — contrast with civil rights created by law.
• John Locke's theory of natural rights (life, liberty, property) and the right of revolution most directly shaped the Declaration of Independence.
• Thomas Hobbes favored a strong sovereign for order and security; Locke and Rousseau both grounded legitimate authority in the people.
• Popular sovereignty (CG.b.2) means ultimate authority rests with the people; consent of the governed is the mechanism (elections, ratification) that makes that authority legitimate.
• Expect the GED test to quote the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution's Preamble directly and ask you to match the phrase to the underlying principle.