# Du contrat social is printed, stating that sovereignty belongs to the people as a body

Date: 1762

## The fact

In April 1762 Du contrat social appeared. Popular sovereignty and the general will as a public heading, not a king’s grace, are the improving path. The coercion clause is a different row.

## Context

A people-as-sovereign book can support later constitutions and can bless emergency.

[Jean-Jacques Rousseau](/people/jean-jacques-rousseau) is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

Official library, encyclopedia, or public-domain edition pages and an independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: The Social Contract — Cole translation, public-domain English (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46333; Project Gutenberg).

## Significance

A 1762 popular-sovereignty book is not a ballot box and not 1793.

A 1762 popular-sovereignty book is not a ballot box and not 1793.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau: https://factrail.ai/people/jean-jacques-rousseau

## Drivers

- Democratic Resilience: https://factrail.ai/drivers/democratic-resilience

## Sources

- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46333
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Jacques-Rousseau

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/jjr-contrat-social-1762