# The Social Contract

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/rousseau/the-social-contract/9780140442014

![The Social Contract](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin-classics/jean-jacques-rousseau/the-social-contract_978-01-4044-201-4.jpg?v=2026-04-23%2004%3A37%3A00)

- Book: [The Social Contract](https://www.bookquiver.com/rousseau/the-social-contract) ([The Social Contract.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/rousseau/the-social-contract.md))
- Authors: [Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.bookquiver.com/rousseau)
- Publisher: penguin_classics
- ISBN: 978-01-4044-201-4
- Pages: 192
- Published: 2003-07-31
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains' These are the famous opening words of a treatise that has not ceased to stir vigorous debate since its first publication in 1762. Rejecting the view that anyone has a natural right to wield authority over others, Rousseau argues instead for a pact, or 'social contract', that should exist between all the citizens of a state and that should be the source of sovereign power. From this fundamental premise, he goes on to consider issues of liberty and law, freedom and justice, arriving at a view of society that has seemed to some a blueprint for totalitarianism, to others a declaration of democratic principles.