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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 95.1 | The History Cooperative
95.1  
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June, 2008
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Book Review


The Social Contract in America: From the Revolution to the Present Age. By Mark Hulliung. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007. xii, 256 pp. $29.95, ISBN 978-0-7006-1540-7.)
Democratic political systems do not necessarily require the concept of a social contract for their legitimacy. In fact, some social contract theorists (Thomas Hobbes among them) have used the device to justify authoritarian regimes. Nevertheless, the concept of a social contract can emphasize features basic to democratic practice—mutual obligations between citizens and between citizens and governors; popular sovereignty; and constitutional government—and has been widely employed in the United States. . . .
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