Who said that a government should be chose by its citizens?

The idea that a government should be chosen by its citizens is most famously associated with democratic theorists like john Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Locke argued for the social contract and the consent of the governed, while Rousseau emphasized the importance of the general will. These Enlightenment thinkers laid the philosophical groundwork for modern democratic principles, advocating that legitimate political authority arises from the will of the people.