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The Declaration reflects several ideas of John Locke:
-Government's duty to protect the people's natural rights.
-People have the right to "alter or abolish" unjust governments.
-Popular sovereignty, which states that all government power comes from the people. -
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-They saw the government in terms of a social contract in which "We the people of the United States" entered.
-There was also a separation of powers among the judicial, legislative and executive branches; a concept borrowed from Montesquieu.