An okay read. I don't necessarily agree with everything he has to say, but it's worth a look at. ( )

The Social Contract is Jean-Jacques Rousseau's seminal work. He takes on the question of the state, government, and man's desire to be free under these conditions. Although Rousseau speaks quite too favorably of Rome and Sparta when justifying his main points, he nevertheless provides a provocative case for the use of the State, it's laws, and it's authority. However his flaws lie in his assurance of top-down government, and lack of faith in true democracy. He accuses direct democracy as incredibly paralyzing, and inefficient, which is true when applied in the context of mercantile, pre-modern conditions. “You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one.” ( )

Important enlightenment literature, but you can see all the places that are proto-communist. I can't really agree with his support of an "Enlightened Minority" required to direct societal affairs.

Read Locke instead ;D ( )

The predecessor to Karl Marx and Kapital. To understand Marxism, Rosseau and his ideas are practically a prerequisite, his concepts of collectivism, and distrust of representative democracy, and his declaration that "Man is free, yet everywhere he is in chains". For hardcore political scientists: read this to understand the ideological underpinnings of the architects of the French Revolution, the Jacobins, then read Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France" to see a critique of Rosseauean ideology and what it did to France. ( )

Interesting ideas that don't really hold up to philosophical scutiny. ( )