Social Contract

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Overview

Rousseau's Social Contract, published in 1762, asks how people can live under law and still be free. His answer is that legitimate authority comes from a social agreement in which each person joins the community and obeys laws that express the general will, a will aimed at the common good. Since citizens obey rules they have helped to make, they obey themselves. The book is a foundation of modern democratic and republican thought and a source of lasting dispute.

Context

Rousseau was born in Geneva, a city-republic, and was proud of its citizen assemblies, though he criticised its practice. He wrote at a time of absolute monarchy in France, and the book was condemned in both Paris and Geneva soon after publication in 1762. It was influential in the years leading up to and during the French Revolution, when leaders invoked its language, though how far it caused events is debated.