The Social Contract

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 (edited in Amsterdam)
Language	French
Publication date	1762
Original text	Du contrat social; ou, Principes du droit politique at French Wikisource
Translation	The Social Contract; or, Principles of Political Right at Wikisource

The Social Contract, originally published as On the Social Contract; or, Principles of Political Right (French: Du contrat social; ou, Principes du droit politique), is a 1762 French-language book by the Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The book theorizes about how to establish legitimate authority in a political community, that is, one compatible with individual freedom, in the face of the problems of commercial society, which Rousseau had already identified in his Discourse on Inequality (1755).

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 general will of the people has the right to legislate, for only under the general will can the people be said to obey only themselves and hence be free. Although Rousseau's notion of the general will is subject to much interpretive controversy, it seems to involve a legislature consisting of all adult members of the political community who are restricted to legislating general laws for the common good.