The Social Contract (Translated by G. D. H. Cole with an Introduction by Edward L. Walter)

Originally published in 1762, "The Social Contract" is Jean-Jacques Rousseau's treatise on how to best organize politics in the face of commercial society. Rousseau writes, "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains." This statement exemplifies the main dilemma of government, that despite mankind having an inherent natural right to freedom, modern, especially autocratic, governments had gone too far in restricting it. The question which Rousseau is asking within this work is whether ...