Social contract. Political Theory Thread [View all]

[Ed Suspicious]

I'm doing some reading/writing on the social contract. I'm a little unclear on a couple things, and I hope you can straighten me out or point me in the right direction.

Is the social contract an agreement between the people of a community to to collectively cede liberties to the state or is it an agreement with the state that we individuals will sacrifice some personal liberty in exchange for the protections/legal framework provided by the state? I know the difference wouldn't be terribly consequential, but it makes a difference to the way I am to frame my writing on the contract.

Is it an agreement between ourselves or is it an agreement with those we are to accept as our leaders, our sovereign?

Additionally, what is the state's role in the social contract? I'm writing about how we hold un-elected officials accountable to the social contract. I'm thinking specifically about police forces. I've referenced the accountability literature to understand that there are a few modes of accountability. These include vertical, horizontal, and societal (which is really a sort of branch of vertical.) I've also read about diagonal but I don't exactly understand it. I want to explore the most effective means of holding the un-elected agents of the state to account from a political theory perspective.

So my thought is that we are in an agreement with our government and that our end of the bargain is to cede liberty by way of paying our taxes to fund infrastructures such as the judicial system, and we cede liberty by agreeing to the rule of law and by following those laws. It is my position that it is the states end of the bargain to work to ensure that our liberties are not trampled, it is to settle disagreements between citizens, and it is to enforce the law. When we see patterns of police brutality, police killings, faulty no knock warrants, innocent civilians injured by police negligence, police abusing their authority . . . I argue that this is a break in the social contract.

Am I thinking of this in the right way and where can I find writing that backs up the idea that police are bound to the social contract and deserve to be held accountable for these transgressions?