1-02-Primitive Societies

The Social Contract

by Jean-Jacques ROUSSEAU (1712 - 1778)

The Social Contract outlines Rousseau's views on political justice, explaining how a just and legitimate state is to be founded, organized and administered. Rousseau sets forth, in his characteristically brazen and iconoclastic manner, the case for direct democracy, while simultaneously casting every other form of government as illegitimate and tantamount to slavery. Often hailed as a revolutionary document which sparked the French Revolution, The Social Contract serves both to inculcate dissatisfaction with actually-existing governments and to allow its readers to envision and desire a radically different form of political and social organization. (Summary by Eric Jonas)

Listen next episodes of The Social Contract:
1-03-The Right of the Strongest , 1-04-Slavery , 1-05-That it is always necessary to go back to a first convention , 1-06-The Social Pact , 1-07-The Sovereign , 1-08-The Civil State , 1-09-Real Property , 2-01-That Sovereignty is inalienable , 2-02-That Soverignty is indivisible , 2-03-Whether the General Will can ere , 2-04-The limits of the sovereign power , 2-05-The right of Life and Death , 2-06-The Law , 2-07-The Legislator , 2-08-The People , 2-09-The People (continued) , 2-10-The People (continued) , 2-11-The Different Systems of legislation , 2-12-Division of the Laws , 3-01-Government in general , 3-02-The Principle which constitutes the different forms of Government , 3-03-Classification of Governments , 3-04-Democracy , 3-05-Arisctocracy , 3-06-Monarchy , 3-07-Mixed Governments , 3-08-That every form of government is not fit for every country , 3-09-The Marks of a good Government , 3-10-The Abuse of the Government and its tendency to degenerate , 3-11-The Dissolution of the Body Politic , 3-12-How the sovereign Authority is Maintained , 3-13-How the sovereign Authority is Maintained (continued) , 3-14-How the sovereign Authority is Maintained (continued) , 3-15-Deputies or Representatives , 3-16-That the Institution of the Government is not a contract , 3-17-The Institution of the Government , 3-18-Means of Preventing Usurpations of the Government , 4-01-That the General Will is indestructible , 4-02-Voting , 4-03-Elections , 4-04-The Roman Comitia , 4-05-The Tribuneship , 4-06-The Dictatorship , 4-07-The Censorship , 4-08-Civil Religion , 4-09-Conclusion