Answer:
b. By violating the social contract with the colonists, the king has lost his authority to rule.
Step-by-step explanation:
The French philosopher John Locke is known for favoring a limited government that had to be accountable for the people it governs and having a great influence in may of Democratic governments that exist nowadays. In his Two Treatises of Government" (1689), Locke claimed that men were by nature free and equal, but with the purpose to interact in a healthy society, it was necessary that they transferred some of their rights to a government in a "Social Contract". Under that contract, the government had to be elected by the people and had to protect people's natural rights to life, liberty, and property. However, whenever the government failed to do so, people had the authority to abolish it and replace it.
These ideas highly influenced the Declaration of Independence. In this document, the Thirteen American Colonies unanimously declared independence from Britain for violating the social contract, as part of the document states:
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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government