ABSTRACT
The true implications of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's political thought, and in particular the despotic justificatory possibilities of its most original and distinctive idea, emerged only slowly. The Social Contract, the fullest and final expression of that thought, was first published in 1792. Turning to The Social Contract, it is easy to be misled, either by studying the work out of context, or by its stylistic adornments, or even by its title. The Social Contract is a quite extraordinarily brilliant book, replete with epigram and paradox. In the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Rousseau speaks both of 'the establishment of the body politic as a true contract between the populace and the leaders it chooses for itself', and of how, 'with respect to social relations, the populace has united all its wills into a single one'. The true implications of Rousseau's political thought, and in particular the despotic justificatory possibilities of its most original and distinctive idea, emerged only slowly.
