The Social Contract

Rousseau begins from a statement: man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. He then looks for a form of association in which each, uniting with all, still obeys only himself. From this pact he draws popular sovereignty, the general will, law as the expression of all, and a government reduced to a servant. The work explores the legitimacy of power, equality, representation and the conditions in which a republic lasts. Rousseau grounds in reason what tradition had grounded on force or divine right, in firm and demonstrative prose.