Rousseau argues that legitimate political authority rests only on the consent of the governed, reconciling individual freedom with civic obligation through the collective 'general will.'
Books mentioned in The Social Contract (3)
The Republic by Plato: “This public person, so formed by the union of all other persons, formerly took the name of _city_,[1] and now takes that of _Republic_ or _body politic_; it is called by its members _State_ when passive, _Sovereign_ when active, and _Power_ when compared with others like itself.”
The Spirit of the Laws by Montesquieu: “The author of _The Spirit of the Laws_ has shown with many examples by what art the legislator directs the constitution towards each of these objects.”
De Jure Belli ac Pacis by Hugo Grotius: “Every one can see, in Chapters III and IV of the First Book of Grotius, how the learned man and his translator, Barbeyrac, entangle and tie themselves up in their own sophistries”
Books that mention The Social Contract (7)
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: ““Rousseau’s Contrat Social,” said the vicomte with a tolerant smile. “I am not speaking of regicide, I am speaking about ideas.””
Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac: “he lifts up his voice against the colossal fraud of the Social Contract, as Jean Jacques did, whose pupil he is proud to declare himself.”
The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle: “has not Jean Jacques promulgated his new Evangel of a _Contrat Social;_ explaining the whole mystery of Government, and how it is _contracted_ and bargained for”
Uncle Bernac by Arthur Conan Doyle: “It was Rousseau's 'Social Contract'--excellent literature, but hardly what one would expect a trader to carry with him whilst awaiting an appointment with smugglers.”
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael J. Sandel: “In The Social Contract (1762), he argues that turning a civic duty into a marketable good does not increase freedom, but rather undermines it.”
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak: “a brawny soldier with beady eyes suspiciously scanned through Rousseau's Social Contract... Man is born free but everywhere is in chains.”
Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad: “These glances were needless; the people crossing over in the distance seemed unwilling even to look at the islet where the exiled effigy of the author of the _Social Contract_ sat enthroned above the bowed head of Razumov in the sombre immobility of bronze.”