The Social Contract

The Social Contract, published in 1762 by the Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau under the full title On the Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right, asks how legitimate political authority can be established in a way compatible with individual freedom. Rousseau argues against the claim that monarchs hold a divine right to legislate, holding instead that only the general will of the people has the right to make law, since obeying the general will is, properly understood, a form of obeying oneself. The general will is not simply majority opinion; it requires a legislature open to every adult member of the community, restricted to enacting general laws for the common good, and Rousseau's own account of how this is meant to work has remained subject to extensive interpretive dispute. The book helped inspire political reform and revolution in Europe, especially in France, and builds on problems of commercial society Rousseau had already raised in his earlier Discourse on Inequality.