The social contract, or, Principles of political right

Rousseau argues for the preservation of individual freedom in political society.

An individual can only be free under the law, he says, by voluntarily embracing that law as his own.

Hence, being free in society requires each of us to subjugate all our desires to the collective good, the general will.

This text is not only a defence of civil society, but also a study of the darker side of political systems.