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18635 | Social contract theories are usually rejected because there never was such a contract [Kymlicka] |
Full Idea: Social contract theories have all been subjected to the same criticism - that there never was such a state of nature, or such a contract. Hence neither citizens nor government are bound by it. Contracts only create obligations if they are actually agreed. | |
From: Will Kymlicka (Contemporary Political Philosophy (1st edn) [1990], 3.3) | |
A reaction: Even if they have been agreed in the past, why should subsequent generations be bound to them? Modern Germans aren't bound by their grandparents' oaths of allegiance to fascism. |