DBQ – The Social Contract

The Social Contract –  Jean Jacques Rousseau (1763)

Read the following passage and answer the questions below.

Man was born free, but everywhere he is in chains. How did that transformation take place? 

At a point in the state of nature when the obstacles to human preservation have become greater than each individual with his own strength can cope with . . ., an adequate combination of forces must be the result of men coming together. 

Still, each man’s power and freedom are his main means of self-preservation. How is he to put them under the control of others without damaging himself?

The social contract offers a solution.

Once this multitude is united this way into a body, an offense against one of its members is an offense against the body politic. Each individual immediately recovers his primitive rights and natural liberties whenever any violation of the social contract occurs.

Answer This Question:

 According to Rousseau, what causes individuals to form a social contract and how could it be broken?