《世界大师原典文库：社会契约论（中文导读插图版）》是一部政治哲学著作，主要探讨政治权利的原理，主旨是为人民民主主权的建立奠定理论基础。社会契约论分为四卷。第一卷论述社会结构和社会契约；第二卷阐述主权及其权利；第三卷阐述政府及其运作形式；第四卷讨论几种社会组织。书中主权在民的思想，是现代民主制度的基石，美国的《独立宣言》和法国的《人权宣言》及两国的宪法均体现了《社会契约论》的民主思想。

FOREWARD
第一卷 导读
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 PROPERTY

第二卷 导读
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 VAR

I MEAN to inquire if, in the civil order, there can be any sure and legitimate rule of administration, men being taken as they are and laws as they might be. In this inquiry I shall endeavour always to unite what right sanctions with what is prescribed by interest, in order that justice and utility may in no case be divided.<br> I enter upon my task without proving the importance of the subject. I shall be asked if I am a prince or a legislator, to write on politics. I answer that I am neither, and that is why I do so. If I were a prince or a legislator, I should not waste time in saying what wants doing; I should do it, or hold my peace.<br> As I was born a citizen of a free State, and a member of the Sovereign, I feel that, however feeble the influence my voice can have on public affairs, the right of voting on them makes it my duty to study them: and I am happy, when I reflect upon governments, to find my inquiries always furnish me with new reasons for loving that