The Social Contract is one of the three most influential political treatises ever written (the others being Plato’s Republic and Marx’s Das Kapital ). The Social Contract continues to exert a direct influence on contemporary political thought. In it, and in the three Discourses printed with it in this book, Rousseau discusses the nature of liberty, human rights and the state; the origins of private property; the function of education; the economic structure of society; and the relationship between individuals and the community. This revised re-issue of G.D.H. Cole’s translation includes sections from the first manuscript draft of the text and is accompanied by an introduction, chronology and bibliography prepared by Professor Alan Ryan.