SOBERANIA E SUBORDINAÇÃO VOLUNTÁRIA: A CONCEPÇÃO CONTRATUALISTA SOBRE A LEGITIMAÇÃO DA AUTORIDADE GOVERNAMENTAL.

The present article proposes to contribute to the study of contractualist thinkers by comparing the fundamental elements of their theories in order to seek in the volitional element of the subjects the motives for the legitimacy of the sovereignty exercised by the ruler. Since the sixteenth century, multiple approaches have been adopted by the authors who have embarked on this arduous task, and the most diverse hypotheses have been proposed - whether founded in moral, religious, psychological, social, natural or any other basis. In this theme, the contractualists innovate by breaking with the notion of sovereignty deriving from the Divine Right of the Kings, establishing the first rational and anthropocentric bases of the construction of the State. In this line of reasoning, they end up using some very similar premises: the innate human nature, the state of nature, the social contract and civil society. However, in spite of the formal similarity of these propositions, the three contractualists differ substantially in the content attributed to these premises in the construction of the social contract argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]