Lesson 7: Declaration of Independence

     The Declaration of Independence reflects Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Social Contract" in saying that governments are created among people, and the ran by the governed people.  The Contract says that the government acts for the good of the people.

Also, governed people have a "responsibility to be involved in their governance" and "people must participate in society to benefit from it."  The Declaration reflects this by saying "it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a Government, and provide new Guards for their future security."  If ever a government were to abuse their "natural rights." 

 Two more things covered in the Contract are freedom of religion and separation of church and state.  These freedoms are implied in the Declaration of Independence where it says that "all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."