In what ways might we argue that there is a contractual relationship between government and governed

... In what ways might we argue that there is a contractual relationship between government and governed The notion that there is a contractual relationship between government and governed in British society is firmly entrenched in liberal ideology. As Riley puts it, "Political philosophy since the seventeenth century has been characterized, above all, by voluntarism, by an emphasis on the consent of individuals as the standard of political legitimacy.", a view firmly endorsed by Lessnoff, who states that, "Social contract theory ... can be defined as, most typically, one which grounds the legitimacy of political authority, and the obligations of rulers and subjects ... on a premised contract ..." Nor is the liberal tradition of contractarianism merely confined to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the "great age of social contract theory." The work of twentieth century philosophers/theorists such as Rawls (who is generally acknowledged as having revived and modernized social contract theory albeit

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