The Social Contract

What is The Social Contract about?

The Social Contract (Du contrat social, 1762) is Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s most important political work and one of the foundational texts of modern democratic theory. Opening with the famous declaration “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains,” Rousseau argues that legitimate political authority can only rest on a social contract among citizens who freely agree to form a collective body. He introduces the concept of the “general will”—the collective interest of the people as distinct from the sum of individual desires—as the basis for legitimate law and governance. The work examines how sovereignty belongs to the people as a whole, how laws should express the general will, and how different forms of government (democracy, aristocracy, monarchy) relate to the social contract. Rousseau also addresses the role of religion, civil society, and the conditions under which government becomes illegitimate. The Social Contract profoundly influenced the French Revolution, the American founding, and virtually all subsequent democratic political theory. Its ideas about popular sovereignty, consent of the governed, and the common good remain central to political philosophy and constitutional governance.