au recognizes that man is quite content in this state. Although he cannot be sustained for extended periods in this state, he chooses to contract into society to align justice with utility, avoid the inconveniences of Nature and gain the greater benefits achieved by submitting to a collective society. "For since men cannot engender new forces, but merely unite and direct existing ones, they have no other means of maintaining themselves but to form by aggregation a sum of forces that could gain the upper hand over the resistance, so that their forces are directed by mean of single moving power and made to act in concert" (Rousseau p. 147). To Rousseau, the Social Contract regulates and unifies man by replacing natural freedom for convention and therefore creating a greater benefit or convenience than what mans self-interest can achieve in Nature.
             Although both contracts have similar characteristics, several crucial properties remain distinct in each. In entering the Social Contract, Hobbes and Rousseau believe man must consent to lay down his rights and submit to the created convention to avoid returning to the State of Nature. "That man be willing when others are so too, as farre-forth as for Peace, and defence of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right...and be content with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himselfe" (Hobbes p. 190). While laying down of rights and equality for all within the contract is essential, Rousseau's contract allows man to obey himself while remaining as free a
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