Final answer:
The idea of a social contract deciding the relationship between rulers and citizens was influenced by Enlightenment philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke.
Step-by-step explanation:
The idea of a social contract deciding the relationship between rulers and citizens was influenced by Enlightenment philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke. Rousseau's influential treatise The Social Contract proposed that individuals surrender their natural rights to the state in exchange for protection of those rights. He also discussed the theory of the general will, which emphasizes governance guided by the will of the people as a whole. Locke, on the other hand, believed that individuals consented to be ruled by a government that protected their life, liberty, and property, but if the government abused its power, the social contract was broken and the people had the right to form a new government.