The Social Contract

The Social Contract is a political treatise published in 1762 by the Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau argues about the best ways to establish and maintain political authority without unduly sacrificing personal liberty. He builds off 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes’s idea of the “social contract” between the people and sovereign authority, departing from Hobbes in his views on monarchy and the natural state of humankind. The Social Contract was enormously influential on political thought before and during the French Revolution; notorious Jacobin statesman and Reign of Terror leader Maximilien Robespierre was one of the treatise’s fiercest adherents. The book’s controversial views on Christianity also led it to be banned in Geneva and Paris.

This study guide refers to The Social Contract and Discourses published in 1968 by Devoted Publishing.

Summary

In the first of four books, Rousseau poses the fundamental problem he hopes to address with his treatise: how to build a durable and effective political state without excessively curtailing the natural liberties of humankind. He rejects earlier models espoused by philosophers like Niccolò Machiavelli, who believed authority is rooted in strength, in other words “might makes right.” Rousseau also refutes Thomas Hobbes, who believed that the most effective form of authority is a strong, central monarch.