The Social Contract - wikipedia The Social Contract This article is about Jean - Jacques Rousseau 's 1762 treatise. For `` social contract '' as a political and philosophical concept, see Social contract. For other uses, see Social Contract ( disambiguation ). Of the Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right Title page of the first octavo edition Author Jean - Jacques Rousseau Original title Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique Country France Language French Publication date 1762 The Social Contract, or Of the Social Contract, or Principles of Political Law ( French : Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique ; 1762 ) by Jean - Jacques Rousseau, is a book in which Rousseau theorized about the best way to establish a political community in the face of the problems of commercial society, which he had already identified in his Discourse on Inequality ( 1754 ). The Social Contract helped inspire political reforms or revolutions in Europe, especially in France. The Social Contract argued against the idea that monarchs were divinely empowered to legislate. Rousseau asserts that only the people, who are sovereign, have that all - powerful right. Contents 1 Overview 2 Reception 3 References 4 Further reading 5 External links Overview Title page of a pirated edition of the Social Contract, probably printed in Germany. The epigraph of the work is `` foederis aequas / Dicamus leges '' ( Virgil, Aeneid XI. 321 -- 22 ). The stated aim of The Social Contract is to determine whether there can be a legitimate political authority, since people 's interactions he saw at his time seemed to put them in a state far worse than the good one they were at in the state of nature, even though living in isolation. He concludes book one, chapter three with, `` Let us then admit that force does not create right, and that we are obliged to obey only legitimate powers '', which is to say, the ability to coerce is not a legitimate power, and there is no rightful duty to submit to it. A state has no right to enslave a conquered people. In this desired social contract, everyone will be free because they all forfeit the same amount of rights and impose the same duties on all. Rousseau argues that it is absurd for a man to surrender his freedom for slavery ; thus, the participants must have a right to choose the laws under which they live. Although the contract imposes new laws, including those safeguarding and regulating property, there are restrictions on how that property can be legitimately claimed. His example with land includes three conditions ; that the land be uninhabited, that the owner claims only what is needed for subsistence, and that labor and cultivation give the possession legitimacy. Rousseau posits that the political aspects of a society should be divided into two parts. First, there must be a sovereign consisting of the whole population, women included, that represents the general will and is the legislative power within the state. The second division is that of the government, being distinct from the sovereign. This division is necessary because the sovereign can not deal with particular matters like applications of the law. Doing so would undermine its generality, and therefore damage its legitimacy. Thus, government must remain a separate institution from the sovereign body. When the government exceeds the boundaries set in place by the people, it is the mission of the people to abolish such government, and begin anew. Rousseau claims that the size of the territory to be governed often decides the nature of the government. Since a government is only as strong as the people, and this strength is absolute, the larger the territory, the more strength the government must be able to exert over the populace. In his view, a monarchical government is able to wield the most power over the people since it has to devote less power to itself, while a democracy the least. In general, the larger the bureaucracy, the more power required for government discipline. Normally, this relationship requires the state to be an aristocracy or monarchy. When Rousseau uses the word democracy, he refers to a direct democracy rather than a representative democracy. In light of the relation between population size and governmental structure, Rousseau argues that, like his native Geneva, small city - states are the form of nation in which freedom can best flourish. For states of this size, an elected aristocracy is preferable, and in very large states a benevolent monarch ; but even monarchical rule, to be legitimate, must be subordinate to the sovereign rule of law. Reception This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. ( June 2016 ) The French philosopher Voltaire used his publications to criticise and mock Rousseau, but also to defend free expression. In his Idées républicaines ( 1765 ), he reacted to the news that The Social Contract had been burned in Geneva, saying `` The operation of burning it was perhaps as odious as that of writing it. (... ) To burn a book of argument is to say : ' We do not have enough wit to reply to it. ' '' The work was also banned in Paris. References Jump up ^ R.A. Leigh, Unsolved Problems in the Bibliography of J. - J. Rousseau ( Cambridge, 1990 ), plate 22. Jump up ^ Gay, Peter ( 1959 ). Voltaire 's Politics : The Poet as Realist. New Jersey : Princeton University Press. pp. 214 -- 219. Jump up ^ Davidson, Ian ( 2004 ). Voltaire in Exile. Atlantic books. pp. 186 -- 187. ISBN 1843540878. Jump up ^ `` Jean - Jacques Rousseau The Core Curriculum ''. www.college.columbia.edu. Columbia University. Retrieved 12 April 2017. Further reading Bertram, Christopher ( 2003 ). Rousseau and the ' Social Contract '. Routledge. Incorvati, Giovanni ( 2012 ) `` Du contrat social, or the principles of political right ( s ). Les citoyens de Rousseau ont la parole en anglais '', in : G. Lobrano, P.P. Onida, Il principio della democrazia. Jean - Jacques Rousseau Du Contrat social ( 1762 ), Napoli, Jovene, p. 213 - 256. Williams, David Lay ( 2014 ). Rousseau 's ' Social Contract ' : An Introduction. Cambridge University Press. Wraight, Christopher D. ( 2008 ). Rousseau 's The Social Contract : A Reader 's Guide. London : Continuum Books. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Du contrat social. Wikisource has original text related to this article : The Social Contract Wikiquote has quotations related to : The Social Contract Du contrat social ( MetaLibri ) The Social Contract translated 1782 by G.D.H. Cole at constitution.org ' The Social Contract Public domain audiobook G.D.H. Cole translation The Social Contract English translation audiobook on LibriVox.org Catholic Encyclopedia Based on an article critical of The Social Contract, written in 1908. SparkNotes entry on The Social Contract Rousseaus Gesellschaftsvertrag in Kurzform A site containing The Social Contract, slightly modified for easier reading The Social Contract on In Our Time at the BBC. Du contrat social, or the principles of political right ( s ) Jean - Jacques Rousseau Works Discourse on the Arts and Sciences Le devin du village Discourse on Inequality Letter to M. D'Alembert on Spectacles Julie, or the New Heloise Emile, or On Education The Social Contract Constitutional Project for Corsica Pygmalion Confessions Considerations on the Government of Poland Letters on the Elements of Botany Essay on the Origin of Languages Dialogues : Rousseau, Judge of Jean - Jacques Reveries of a Solitary Walker Concepts Amour de soi Amour - propre General will Property By owner Common Common land Communal land Community Cooperative Private Public State Crown property Crown land By nature Croft Intangible Intellectual indigenous Personal Tangible immovable real Common resources Common - pool resource Digital Global Information Knowledge Theory Bundle of rights Commodity fictitious commodities Common good ( economics ) Excludability First possession appropriation homestead principle Free rider problem Game theory Georgism Gift economy Labor theory of property Law of rent rent - seeking Legal plunder Natural rights Ownership common customary self state Property rights primogeniture usufruct women 's Right to property Rivalry Tragedy of the commons anticommons Applications Acequia ( watercourse ) Ejido ( agrarian land ) Forest types Inheritance Land tenure Property law alienation easement restraint on alienation real estate title Rights Air Fishing Forest - dwelling ( India ) Freedom to roam Grazing pannage Hunting Land aboriginal indigenous squatting Littoral Mineral Bergregal Right of way Water prior - appropriation riparian Disposession / redistribution Bioprospecting Collectivization Eminent domain Enclosure Eviction Expropriation Farhud Forced migration population transfer Illegal fishing Illegal logging Land reform Legal plunder Piracy Poaching Primitive accumulation Privatization Regulatory taking Slavery bride - buying human trafficking wage wife selling Tax inheritance poll progressive property Theft Scholars ( key work ) Frédéric Bastiat Ronald Coase Henry George Garrett Hardin David Harvey John Locke Two Treatises of Government Karl Marx Marcel Mauss The Gift John Stuart Mill Elinor Ostrom Karl Polanyi The Great Transformation Pierre - Joseph Proudhon What Is Property ? David Ricardo Murray N. Rothbard The Ethics of Liberty Jean - Jacques Rousseau The Social Contract Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations Categories : Property Property law by country VIAF : 310911851 LCCN : n79141758 GND : 4262464 - 2 BNF : cb32588839b ( data ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Social_Contract&oldid=792477029 '' Categories : 1762 books Philosophy books Works by Jean - Jacques Rousseau Social philosophy literature Books about sovereignty Hidden categories : Articles containing French - language text Articles to be expanded from June 2016 All articles to be expanded Articles using small message boxes Commons category without a link on Wikidata Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikiquote Wikisource Bân - lâm - gú Български Català Deutsch Español Esperanto فارسی Français 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית Македонски മലയാളം Nederlands 日本 語 Português Suomi Türkçe Українська اردو 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 26 July 2017, at 19 : 11. 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Question: who was the author of the book entitled the social contract
Answer: Jean-Jacques Rousseau