Practice question · Multiple choice
Social contract theory relies on a hypothetical agreement rather than a historical one. What follows from this distinction when evaluating whether an existing state is legitimate?
Hints
- Does the theory aim to describe past negotiations or test current institutional arrangements?
- What kind of evidence would an actual historical requirement demand compared to a hypothetical thought experiment?
Show the answer
D. The contract serves as a conceptual benchmark rather than an event
Why
Treating the contract historically mistakes a normative standard for an empirical occurrence. Contract theory assesses whether an institutional settlement could be justified to rational individuals, not whether a real founding event occurred or an explicit document was signed.
Practise The Liberal State and Its Contracts
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Political Science I is free to start.
More questions on The Liberal State and Its Contracts
- A nineteenth-century state has a constitution, entrenched rights, separated powers and a franchise of under…
- Which are true of the social contract as an argument?
- Complete the account of liberal theory.
- Pateman argues that contract theorists simply forgot to consider women.
- Approximately what percentage of the adult population in Britain could vote before the 1832 Reform Act?
- Sort each feature by whether it belongs to LIBERALISM or to DEMOCRACY.
- Arrange these works and events in chronological order.
- Arrange the steps of the contract argument in the order it proceeds.