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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.