One of the most controversial topics in political theory and analysis is the relationship between the individual and the state. There are a number of rival theories offering different accounts for the justification, development, impact, and origin of the state in relation to its inhabitants. One of the more common interpretations, which had considerable impact on the creation of democracies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is based on the idea of the "social contract" as developed by philosophers such as Plato (428–348 or 347 B.C.E.), Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), John Locke (1632–1704), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), and Immanuel Kant (1724–1804).

These philosophers imagine a hypothetical "state of nature" before any political authority. All individuals are on their own in the sense that there is no higher authority that would command their obedience or protect their interests and possessions. Since their self-interested behavior might lead to conflict between...