The social contract is the idea that political order gains legitimacy through some form of agreement—explicit or implicit—among the governed. Rather than seeing the state as purely natural or divine, social contract thinkers treated authority as something that requires justification.

This framework influenced modern political thought by asking a hard question: what are people entitled to expect from power in exchange for obedience? That question still sits beneath debates about rights, law, and the purpose of government.

Reference:

Wikipedia: Social contract

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract