contents

the social contract or principles of political right 
book i 
1 subject of the first book
2 the first societies
3 the right of the strongest
4 slavery 
5 that we must always go back to a first convention
6 the social compact
7 the sovereign 
8 the civil state
9 real property18 
book ii 

1 that sovereignty is inalienable 
2 that sovereignty is indivisible
3 whether the general will is fallible 
4 the limits of the sovereign power
5 the right of life and death
6 law 
7 the legislator 
8 the people 
9 the people (continued) 
10 the people (continued) 
11 the various systems of legislation
12 the division of the laws
book iii 
1 government in general
2 the constituent principle in the various forms
of government 
3 the division of governments 
4 democracy
5 aristocracy 
6 monarchy
7 mixed governments 
8 that all forms of government do not suit all countries
9 the marks of a good government 
10 the abuse of government and its tendency to degenerate 
11 the death of the body politic
12 how the sovereign authority maintains itself
13 the same (continued)
14 the same (continued) 
15 deputies or representatives
16 that the institution of government is not a contract 
17 the institution of government 
18 how to check the usurpations of government
book iv 
1 that the general will is indestructible
2 voting 
3 elections
4 the roman comitia 
5 the tribunate
6 the dictatorship
7 the censorship
8 civil religion 
9 conclusion




a discourse upon the origin and the foundation of the inequality among mankind 
introductory note 
question proposed by the academy of dijon
a discourse upon the origin and the foundation of the inequality 
part i 
part ii