# The Social Compact explained — The Social Contract > Chapter companion for The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. ## What happens Rousseau describes the fundamental problem of finding a form of association that protects each member while allowing them to obey only themselves and remain as free as before. The solution is the social compact, where each individual alienates all rights to the whole community, creating a moral and collective body—the Republic or body politic—under the supreme direction of the general will. ## Themes in this chapter ### The Social Contract The chapter defines the social compact as the total alienation of each associate to the whole community, forming a collective body. ### The General Will The compact places all persons and power under the supreme direction of the general will. ## Character check-ins ### Jean-Jacques Rousseau Author of the Social Contract, presenting the foundational compact. ## Key lines > The problem is to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before. The challenge is to create a union that protects each person and their property collectively, yet allows each individual to obey only themselves and remain free. _This is the central problem of the social contract._ > Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole. Every individual surrenders themselves and their abilities to the community, guided by the general will, and each member is accepted as an inseparable part of the collective. _This is the essence of the social compact._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_social_contract_se/chapters/vi-the-social-compact - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_social_contract_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_social_contract_se/chapters