The Social Contract

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. The opening line has never lost its charge. Rousseau's argument, that legitimate government rests on the general will of a people governing itself, has inspired democrats and alarmed their critics ever since, because the general will is a powerful idea and a dangerous one. Read him to understand both why popular sovereignty is a moral demand and why people have feared what is done in its name.

The Genevan who made popular sovereignty a moral demand rather than a mechanism. The Social Contract opens with a line that has never lost its charge: man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. His idea of the general will, the shared interest of a people governing itself, has inspired democrats and frightened their critics in equal measure ever since. Few writers are argued with so fiercely so long after their death.