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... of our mutual opacity and the weight of structural inequalities. At the same time, Rousseau's account of the psychic threats which hinder our attempts to secure freedom and equality points toward an ongoing struggle to preserve democratic life. Our capacity to serve as our own lawgivers - namely, our institutional imagination and ability to cultivate openness to the voices of the subjugated - will dictate which of the two storylines of the Social Contract becomes our own. Lawgivers Aim The lawgiver of the Social Contract is asked to constitute a democracy in a generalized political time.1 He generates freedom and equality within a people-to-be who find themselves in a "social pact" out of mutual despair.2 Bound by a general account of historical development, the people he is forming are haunted by experiences of inequality and subjugation, devoid of any social logic promising transcendence.3In attempting to overcome such memories and institute a general will, ...