social contract

English

WOTD – 18 August 2012

Pronunciation

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Noun

social contract (plural social contracts)

1. (philosophy, politics) An implicit agreement or contract among members of a society governing such matters as submission of individuals to the rule of law and acceptable conduct.

   Synonym: social compact

   • 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly‎^[1], volume 188, number 23, page 19:

     In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. The welfare state is dismantled. […]

   • 2023 April 24, Charles Hugh Smith, America's Social Contract Is Broken‎^[2]:

     When scammers large and small live better than those creating value in the real economy, the Social Contract has ceased to exist.

Translations

agreement or contract

• Amharic: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: عَقْد اِجْتِمَاعِيّ m (ʕaqd ijtimāʕiyy)
• Armenian: հասարակական պայմանագիր (hy) (hasarakakan paymanagir)
• Azerbaijani: ictimai müqavilə
• Belarusian: грамадская дамова f (hramadskaja damóva), грамадскі дагавор m (hramadski dahavór)
• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: contracte social m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 社會契約／社会契约 (shèhuì-qìyuē)

• Danish: samfundspagt c
• Dutch: sociaal contract n
• Estonian: ühiskondlik leping
• Finnish: yhteiskuntasopimus (fi)
• French: contrat social (fr) m
• Georgian: სოციალური კონტრაქტი (socialuri ḳonṭrakṭi)
• German: Gesellschaftsvertrag (de) m
• Greek: please add this translation if you can
• Hebrew: אֲמָנָה חֶבְרָתִית (he) f (amaná khevratít)
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: kontrak sosial
• Italian: contratto sociale m
• Japanese: 社会契約 (shakai keiyaku)
• Korean: 사회계약 (sahoegyeyak)
• Latin: pactum socialis n, contractus socialis m
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Malay: kontrak sosial
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: samfunnspakt m or f, samfunnskontrakt m

  Nynorsk: samfunnskontrakt m

• Polish: umowa społeczna f
• Portuguese: contrato social
• Romanian: contract social m
• Russian: обще́ственный догово́р (obščéstvennyj dogovór)
• Spanish: contrato social m
• Tagalog: kasunduang panlipunan
• Tamil: சமூக ஒப்பந்தம் (camūka oppantam)
• Turkish: toplumsal sözleşme
• Ukrainian: суспільний договір (suspilʹnyj dohovir), соціальний договір (socialʹnyj dohovir)
• Vietnamese: khế ước xã hội