The Social Contract
Rousseau opens with one of the most quoted lines in political thought: man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains. From there he asks how any government could ever be legitimate, and answers with the social contract, an agreement in which people surrender their natural liberty to gain civil freedom under laws they themselves author. His idea of the general will, the shared interest of the community as a whole, would shape democratic theory and echo through the French Revolution. First published in 1762, the treatise still anchors debates about sovereignty, consent, and the limits of the state. This edition uses the G. D. H. Cole translation. Free to read as a PDF and EPUB edition.
About the Author
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was a Genevan philosopher and writer whose ideas on nature, education, and society helped shape the Enlightenment and the Romantic movement. His Confessions pioneered modern autobiography.
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Listen to The Social Contract Audiobook Free
Listen to The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau free online. The full audiobook (4 hr 47 min, 48 chapters, read by volunteer narrators) streams free on this page.
The Social Contract (1901) is a public domain work.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-01-Subject of the First Book | 1:40 | |
| 2 | 1-02-Primitive Societies | 4:33 | |
| 3 | 1-03-The Right of the Strongest | 2:44 | |
| 4 | 1-04-Slavery | 10:28 | |
| 5 | 1-05-That it is always necessary to go back to a first convention | 2:33 | |
| 6 | 1-06-The Social Pact | 5:23 | |
| 7 | 1-07-The Sovereign | 5:50 | |
| 8 | 1-08-The Civil State | 3:15 | |
| 9 | 1-09-Real Property | 7:36 | |
| 10 | 2-01-That Sovereignty is inalienable | 3:08 | |
| 11 | 2-02-That Soverignty is indivisible | 4:43 | |
| 12 | 2-03-Whether the General Will can ere | 2:58 | |
| 13 | 2-04-The limits of the sovereign power | 8:49 | |
| 14 | 2-05-The right of Life and Death | 5:15 | |
| 15 | 2-06-The Law | 7:51 | |
| 16 | 2-07-The Legislator | 8:32 | |
| 17 | 2-08-The People | 5:32 | |
| 18 | 2-09-The People (continued) | 6:11 | |
| 19 | 2-10-The People (continued) | 7:22 | |
| 20 | 2-11-The Different Systems of legislation | 4:09 | |
| 21 | 2-12-Division of the Laws | 3:10 | |
| 22 | 3-01-Government in general | 15:20 | |
| 23 | 3-02-The Principle which constitutes the different forms of Government | 7:34 | |
| 24 | 3-03-Classification of Governments | 3:22 | |
| 25 | 3-04-Democracy | 4:48 | |
| 26 | 3-05-Arisctocracy | 4:49 | |
| 27 | 3-06-Monarchy | 12:43 | |
| 28 | 3-07-Mixed Governments | 2:43 | |
| 29 | 3-08-That every form of government is not fit for every country | 11:56 | |
| 30 | 3-09-The Marks of a good Government | 2:54 | |
| 31 | 3-10-The Abuse of the Government and its tendency to degenerate | 4:48 | |
| 32 | 3-11-The Dissolution of the Body Politic | 3:06 | |
| 33 | 3-12-How the sovereign Authority is Maintained | 2:26 | |
| 34 | 3-13-How the sovereign Authority is Maintained (continued) | 3:37 | |
| 35 | 3-14-How the sovereign Authority is Maintained (continued) | 2:00 | |
| 36 | 3-15-Deputies or Representatives | 7:36 | |
| 37 | 3-16-That the Institution of the Government is not a contract | 2:51 | |
| 38 | 3-17-The Institution of the Government | 2:44 | |
| 39 | 3-18-Means of Preventing Usurpations of the Government | 4:33 | |
| 40 | 4-01-That the General Will is indestructible | 4:54 | |
| 41 | 4-02-Voting | 6:20 | |
| 42 | 4-03-Elections | 4:31 | |
| 43 | 4-04-The Roman Comitia | 21:51 | |
| 44 | 4-05-The Tribuneship | 4:06 | |
| 45 | 4-06-The Dictatorship | 6:06 | |
| 46 | 4-07-The Censorship | 3:47 | |
| 47 | 4-08-Civil Religion | 22:33 | |
| 48 | 4-09-Conclusion | 1:07 |
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