The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau's Social Contract

David Lay Williams is a Professor of Political Science at DePaul University. He is the author of Rousseau's Platonic Enlightenment (2007) and Rousseau's 'Social Contract': An Introduction (CUP, 2014), as well as the co-editor of The General Will: The Evolution of a Concept (CUP, 2015). He is presently completing a book on economic inequality in the history of political thought. Matthew W. Maguire is a Professor of History and Catholic Studies at DePaul University. He is the author of The Conversion of Imagination: From Pascal through Rousseau to Tocqueville (2006) and Carnal Spirit: The Revolutions of Charles Péguy (2019), in addition to essays about diverse topics in European intellectual history. His is now writing a book about autonomy and freedom.

1. Introduction Matthew W. Maguire and David Lay Williams; 2. 'Every legitimate government is republican': Rousseau's debt to and departure from Montesquieu on republicanism John T. Scott; 3. What if there is no legislator? Rousseau's history of the government of Geneva Christopher Kelly; 4. Rousseau's republican citizenship: the moral psychology of the social contract Robin Douglass; 5. Rousseau's negative liberty: themes of domination and skepticism in the social contract Michael Locke McLendon; 6. Rousseau's ancient ends of legislation: liberty, equality (& fraternity) David Lay Williams; 7. Property and possession in Rousseau's social contract Rafeeq Hasan; 8. Political equality among unequals Melissa Schwartzberg; 9. On the primacy of peoplehood: nations and nationalism in Rousseau's social contract Richard Boyd; 10. Rousseau on voting and electoral laws Alexandra Oprea; 11. Rousseau and the puzzle of the Roman republic Geneviève Rousselière; 12. Rousseau's case against democracy Céline Spector; 13. Rousseau's dilemma or 'of civil religion' Steven B. Smith; 14. Entreating the political: politics and theology in Rousseau's social contract Matthew W. Maguire; 15. Civil religion and political unity: social contract 4.8 Ryan Patrick Hanley.