In The Social Contract Rousseau (1712-1778) argues for the preservation of individual freedom in political society.An individual can only be free under the law, he says, by voluntarily embracing that law as his own. Hence, being free in society requires each of us to subjugate our desires to the interests of all, the general will.

In The Social Contract Rousseau (1712-1778) argues for the preservation of individual freedom in political society.An individual can only be free under the law, he says, by voluntarily embracing that law as his own. Hence, being free in society requires each of us to subjugate our desires to the interests of all, the general will.

Some have seen in this the promise of a free and equal relationship between society and the individual,while others have seen it as nothing less than a blueprint for totalitarianism. The Social Contract is not only one of the great defences of civil society, it is also unflinching in its study of the, darker side of political systems.

INTRODUCTION

Prefatory Note

Introductory Note

BOOK ONE

1 Subject of the First Book

2 Primitive Societies

3 The Right of the Strongest

4 Slavery

5 That it is Always Necessary to go Back to a First Convention

6 The Social Pact

7 The Sovereign

8 The Civil State

9 Real Property

BOOK TWO

1 That Sovereignty is Inalienable

2 That Sovereignty is Indivisible

3 Whether the General Will Can Err

4 The Limits of the Sovereign Power

5 The Right of Life and Death

6 The Law

7 The Legislator

8 The People

9 The People (continued)

10 The People (continued)

11 The Different Systems of Legislation

12 Division of the Laws

BOOK THREE

1 Government in General

2 The Principle which Constitutes the Different Forms of Government

3 Classification of Governments

4 Democracy

5 Aristocracy

6 Monarchy

7 Mixed Governments

8 That Every Form of Government is Not Fit for Every Country

9 The Marks of a Good Government

10 The Abuse of the Government and its Tendency to Degenerate

11 The Dissolution of the Body Politic

12 How the Sovereign Authority is Maintained

13 How the Sovereign Authority is Maintained(continued)

14 How the Sovereign Authority is Maintained(continued)

15 Deputies or Representatives

16 That the Institution of the Government is Not a Contract

17 The Institution of the Government

18 Means of Preventing Usurpations of the Government

BOOK FOUR

1 That the General Will is Indestructible

2 Voting

3 Elections

4 The Roman Comitia

5 The Tribuneship

6 The Dictatorship

7 The Censorship

8 Civil Religion

9 Condusion