The Social Contract & Discourses

Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. With this incendiary opening line, Rousseau detonates the philosophical foundations of political authority in 1762. The Social Contract asks a question that still haunts us: what gives any government the right to rule? Rousseau's answer is radical. Rejecting the notion that anyone possesses natural authority over others, he argues that legitimate power must flow from a pact among citizens themselves, a collective agreement to form a society governed by what he calls the general will. From this premise, he develops a vision of sovereignty, freedom, and civic obligation that has inspired revolutions and provoked furious debate for over two centuries. To some readers, Rousseau offers a blueprint for democratic self-governance; to others, his conception of the general will contains the seeds of modern totalitarianism. What no one can deny is that his interrogation of political obligation, individual liberty, and the terms of human association remains unavoidable. Anyone who has ever wondered why they should obey a government, or what would make obedience just, must grapple with this book.