A method of justifying political authority or principles by appeal to an agreement, real or hypothetical, among free and equal persons.
In more detail
Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau used the idea to explain why people should accept government, reaching very different conclusions: absolute sovereignty, limited consent-based government and rule by the general will. Rawls revived the method in the twentieth century with the original position. Critics say that no one actually consented and that hypothetical consent binds no one.