More than we realize, the principles of democracy tie in very closely to the nonprofit sector. There are three principles in particular that we’ll discuss here.

1. The social contract
2. Social capital and civil society
3. Self-interest, rightly understood

SOCIAL CONTRACT

As stated in Encyclopedia Britannica online, the social contract, as seen in political philosophy, is:

“an actual or hypothetical compact, or agreement, between the ruled and their rulers, defining the rights and duties of each. In primeval times, according to the theory, individuals were born into an anarchic state of nature, which was happy or unhappy according to the particular version.”

Then, by using natural reason, they formed a society and a subsequent government.

(Encyclopedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9068440&query=social%20contract&ct=)

Our country was born of a social contract.

Four groups of immigrants, those who founded Rhode Island in 1638; New Haven in 1673, Providence in 1640, and those who settled Connecticut in 1639 all began by drawing up a "social contract".

In 1831 de Toqueville wrote of how the habit of thinking about the common good, based in freedom, is a distinguishing characteristic of the United States, and a critical part of the social contract.