Rawls and Rousseau on the Social Contract

In his A Theory of Justice, John Rawls claims his social contract theory can be considered part of the social contract tradition which includes Locke, Rousseau and Kant. 1 The purpose of this essay is to determine what defines a tradition such as that of the social contract and to evaluate Rawls' claim that he is in the same tradition as Rousseau. At the same time, I analyze the general nature of the contract model and so clarify some of the controversial points in Rawls' and Rousseau'8 political theories.