Following the lead of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau returns to the idea of the social contract in his treatise of the same name. As with Hobbes and Locke, Rousseau begins with a consideration of man in a state of nature. He finds that all men are born free but that all around can be seen men in chains, and he asks how this can have come about and how this change can be seen as legitimate. The right that Rousseau holds in highest regard is the social order, and he says that this is a right that does not come from nature but that is rather founded on conventions. Identifying these conventions is the issue, and one of the important forces expressed by Rousseau as being the motivator for the development of these conventions and for the agreement resulting in a social order is the general will. Rousseau was less interested in individual freedom and more in making government responsive to the general will. Rousseau considered the formation and influence of groups within society. For Rousseau, the social contract created an environment in which the general will of the people, a unifying force, would dominate individuals and their particular wills.
Rousseau agreed that man in nature, the "noble savage," was essentially good, but he also sees that man in society is not free and has not protected himself from tyrannical government. He sees this as a consequence of the failure of people to participate fully in their own governance. Such participation is implied in the individual's place in the general will, but Rousseau is rather vague about the meaning of the general will. He says that the individual may have a particular will that differs from the general will, which can mean that the individual will want things for himself that are not in keeping with the common interest that derives from the general will. Rousseau equates freedom with conformity to the general will, and thus forcing the individual to co...