One of the most important works in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s prolific career, The Social Contract begins with a rejection of Hobbes’ premise that civil society begins with individuals relinquishing power to a sovereign King. (See Hobbes’ Leviathan.) No one has a “natural right” to rule over others, Rousseau argues, but all men are born equal and free. Unfortunately, though:
“Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.”
Although men are born equal and free, the majority of men come to be enslaved to others, economically and politically. Given this problem, Rousseau takes up the question of how men might establish a free society, one in which man’s natural freedom and equality are preserved.
Rather than assuming that men are naturally selfish and motivated through self-interest (as Hobbes stipulates), Rousseau begins from the premise that men are naturally cooperative, and that it is on the basis of this cooperation that the best possible society can be established.
Civil society is established through a pact made between equal, free citizens for the benefit of the greater good, and that this is what establishes the state and the government’s power. In such a society, justice would entail everyone getting their rightful share of common goods (distributive justice).
Interestingly, Rousseau’s Social Contract strongly influenced the founders of the American experiment called the United States, the founders of which saw themselves as establishing a society on the basis of Rousseau's ideas. A must read for those readers interested in political theory, liberalism, and the history of the United States.