"We the people, By the people, For the people," is part of the opening statement of the US constitution. Thomas Jefferson helped to write that document, but where did he get all those ideas? Where did the founding fathers come up with the idea of a perfect union. By listening to the words of philosophers, who in their time were ignored.
One of the most influential social contract philosophers, Jean Jacques Rousseau
wrote of popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people. This idea gave the government its power through the will of the people, and it is the people who retain control of that power. Thomas Jefferson is also known to have taken ideas from John Locke, and put them into the Declaration of Independence. Both philosophers believed that the people are the base of the triangle of governmental power. Rousseau also said that all men should have the right to take up arms against the government, if it did not respect their rights.
Without the social contract philosophers, our founding fathers view of what a perfect union should be would have been very different then what they created. The social contract showed them another way to govern themselves without being ruled by a king. Rousseau argued that the goal of government should be to secure freedom, equality, and justice for all within the state, regardless of the will of the majority. From this idea we were given the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
http://library.thinkquest.org/26466/history_of_democracy.html
http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jun/rousseau.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau
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