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Rousseau explores the political philosophy of authority originating from the consent of the people.
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In The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau presents a political philosophy based on the principle that legitimate authority originates from the consent of the people. Individuals willingly surrender their rights in order to create a collective sovereign, which embodies the general will of the people.
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Introduction
Epigraph
Foreword
Book I - I: Subject of the First Book
Book I - II: The First Societies
Book I - III: The Right of the Strongest
Book I - IV: Slavery
Book I - V: That We Must Always Go Back to a First Convention
Book I - VI: The Social Compact
Book I - VII: The Sovereign
Book I - VIII: The Civil State
Book I - IX: Real Property
Book II - I: That Sovereignty Is Inalienable
Book II - II: That Sovereignty Is Indivisible
Book II - III: Whether the General Will Is Fallible
Book II - IV: The Limits of the Sovereign Power
Book II - V: The Right of Life and Death
Book II - VI: Law
Book II - VII: The Legislator
Book II - VIII: The People
Book II - IX: The People (Continued)
Book II - X: The People (Continued)
Book II - XI: The Various Systems of Legislation
Book II - XII: The Division of the Laws
Book III - I: Government in General
Book III - II: The Constituent Principle in the Various Forms of Government
Book III - III: The Division of Governments
Book III - IV: Democracy
Book III - V: Aristocracy
Book III - VI: Monarchy
Book III - VII: Mixed Governments
Book III - VIII: That All Forms of Government Do Not Suit All Countries
Book III - IX: The Marks of a Good Government
Book III - X: The Abuse of Government and Its Tendency to Degenerate
Book III - XI: The Death of the Body Politic
Book III - XII: How the Sovereign Authority Maintains Itself
Book III - XIII: The Same (Continued)
Book III - XIV: The Same (Continued)
Book III - XV: Deputies or Representatives
Book III - XVI: That the Institution of Government Is Not a Contract
Book III - XVII: The Institution of Government
Book III - XVIII: How to Check the Usurpations of Government
Book IV - I: That the General Will Is Indestructible
Book IV - II: Voting
Book IV - III: Elections
Book IV - IV: The Roman Comitia
Book IV - V: The Tribunate
Book IV - VI: The Dictatorship
Book IV - VII: The Censorship
Book IV - VIII: Civil Religion
Book IV - IX: Conclusion