Unit 18 -19 Rousseau and the Social Contract

1. Dr. AntarAbdellah Unit 18 -19 Rousseau and the Social Contract

2. Biography of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) • Jean Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland. Nine days later, his mother, Suzanne Bernard Rousseau, died due to complications from childbirth. His father, Isaac Rousseau, was a watchmaker who often left for extended periods of time to pursue his trade. In 1772, Rousseau’s father abandoned him to avoid imprisonment after fighting in a duel. Because of his family troubles, Rousseau was raised by his aunt and uncle until he was apprenticed to an engraver at the age of 13. Three years later, he ran away to serve as the secretary to Madame Louise de Warrens, a wealthy woman who would later become his lover.

3. Rousseau spent much of his youth pursuing his strong interest in music. He attended the Annecy Cathedral choir school for six months, and later worked as a music teacher in Chambery. In 1742, he presented the Academie des Sciences with a new system of numbered musical notation that he intended to be compatible with typography. Although the academy scornfully dismissed his system, a version of it is still used in some parts of the world. From 1743 to 1744, Rousseau served as the secretary to the French ambassador in Venice, whose government he would later critique in On the Social Contract. After completing this job, he returned to Paris. It was there that he met Therese Levausseur, with whom he had five children. Notably, Rousseau abandoned all of his children at a foundling hospital shortly after birth.

4. His poor parenting received a great deal of ridicule and criticism, especially after Rousseau published Emile, which lays out theories on proper child rearing and education. While he was in Paris, Rousseau befriended Denis Diderot, a prominent French enlightenment thinker and the organizer of an early encyclopedia. Rousseau wrote several articles for Diderot, including some on music and an influential one on political economy. Rousseau also became acquainted with Voltaire, although intellectual differences later ended their friendship. In 1742, Rousseau entered an essay competition sponsored by the Academie de Dijon. The question asked whether the development of the arts and sciences had a positive effect on morals. Rousseau answered that the arts and sciences had corrupted human morality because they were not human needs, but were rather the result of pride and vanity. Rousseau won the competition, and his essay, Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, garnered him significant respect and fame. In 1754, Rousseau returned to Geneva and converted from Catholicism to Calvinism. In 1755, he finished his second major work, 'Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality among Men'.

5. Although Rousseau’s second discourse did not win a prize, it furthered the ideas presented in the first by attacking private property and the other vices of modern society. In 1762, Rousseau published two major works, The Social Contract and Emile, or On Education. Both books were banned in France and Switzerland because they criticized religion. As a result, Rousseau had to flee arrest and went to Moriers, Switzerland, where he received the protection of Fredrick the Great of Prussia. While he was there, he wrote The Constitutional Project for Corsica, which was never implemented because France invaded and annexed the island in 1769.

6. Rousseau continued to write until his death, even though he faced constant criticism and censure. In 1772, he was asked to make recommendations for a new constitution for Poland. He wrote Considerations on the Government of Poland, which was his last major political work. On July 2, 1778, Rousseau died of a hemorrhage while taking a walk on an estate close to Paris. Rousseau was first buried on the Ile des Peupliers. In 1794, his remains were moved to the Pantheon in Paris, home to many of Frances greatest intellectuals, and were placed across from his intellectual rival, Voltaire.

7. His Ideas • Rousseau criticized society in several essays. For example, in "Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality" (1755), he attacked society and private property as causes of inequality and oppression. The New Heloise (1761) is both a romantic novel and a work that strongly criticizes the false codes of morality Rousseau saw in society. In The Social Contract (1762), a landmark in the history of political science, Rousseau gave his views concerning government and the rights of citizens. In the novel Emile (1762), Rousseau stated that children should be taught with patience and understanding. Rousseau recommended that the teacher appeal to the child's interests, and discouraged strict discipline and tiresome lessons. However, he also felt that children's thoughts and behavior should be controlled. Rousseau believed that people are not social beings by nature.

8. He stated that people, living in a natural condition, isolated and without language, are kind and without motive or impulse to hurt one another. However, once they live together in society, people become evil. Society corrupts individuals by bringing out their inclination toward aggression and selfishness. Rousseau did not advise people to return to a natural condition. He thought that people could come closest to the advantages of that condition in a simple agricultural society in which desires could be limited, sexual and egotistical drives controlled, and energies directed toward community life. In his writings, he outlined institutions he believed were necessary to establish a democracy in which all citizens would participate. Rousseau believed that laws should express the general will of the people. Any kind of government could be considered legitimate, if social organization was by common consent. According to Rousseau, all forms of government would eventually tend to decline. The degeneration could be restrained only through the control of moral standards and the elimination of special interest groups. Robespierre and other leaders of the French Revolution were influenced by Rousseau's ideas on the state; also, many Socialists and some Communists have found inspiration in Rousseau's ideas.

9. His Literary Influence • Rousseau foreshadowed romanticism, a movement that dominated the arts from the late 1700's to the mid-1800's. In both his writings and his personal life, Rousseau exemplified the spirit of romanticism by valuing feeling more than reason, impulse, and spontaneity more than self-discipline. Rousseau introduced true and passionate love to the French novel, popularized descriptions of nature, and created a lyrical and eloquent prose style. His Confessions created a fashion for intimate autobiographies.

10. What is Democracy? • Democracy is a form of government, a way of life, a goal, or ideal, and a political philosophy. The term also refers to a country that has a democratic form of government. The word democracy means rule by the people. United States President Abraham Lincoln described such self-government as “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” The citizens of a democracy take part in government either directly or indirectly. In a direct democracy, also called a ‘pure democracy’, the people meet in one place to make the laws for their community. Most modern democracy is representative democracy. In large communities – cities, states, provinces, or countries – it is impossible for all the people to meet as a group. Instead, they elect a certain number of their fellow citizens to represent them in making decisions about laws and other matters.

11. An assembly of representatives may be called a council, a legislature, a parliament, or a congress. Government by the people through their freely elected representatives is sometimes called a republican government or a democratic republic. Most voting decisions in democracies are based on majority rule that more than half the votes cast. A decision by plurality may be used when three or more candidates stand for election. A candidate with a plurality receives more votes than any other candidate, but does not necessarily have a majority of the votes. In some countries, elections to legislative bodies are conducted according to proportional representation. Such representation awards a political party a percentage of seats in the legislature in proportion to its share of the total vote cast. Throughout history, the most important aspects of the democratic way of life have been the principles of individual equality and freedom. Accordingly, citizens in a democracy should be entitled to equal protection of their persons, possessions, and rights; have equal opportunity to pursue their lives and careers; and have equal rights of political participation.

12. . In addition, the people should enjoy freedom from undue interference and domination by government. They should be free, within the framework of the law, to believe, behave, and express themselves as they wish. Democratic societies seek to guarantee their citizens certain freedoms, including freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech. Ideally, citizens also should be guaranteed freedom of association and of assembly, freedom from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, and the freedom to work and live where and how they choose. Some people in democratic states have been eager to increase the role of government in society in order to make material conditions more equal for everyone.

13. However, other people have been concerned that the extension of government's role in such areas as welfare, education, employment, and housing may decrease the freedom of the people and subject them to too much government regulation. The supporters of more government involvement are known as liberals. The critics of more government involvement are known as conservatives. The division between these groups has helped furnish one of the main themes of controversy and discussion in modern democratic societies.

14. Features of Democracy • The characteristics of democracy vary from one country to another, but certain basic features are more or less the same in all democratic nations. Free elections give the people a chance to choose their leaders and express their opinions on issues. Elections are held periodically to ensure that elected officials truly represent the people. The possibility of being voted out of office helps assure that these officials pay attention to public opinion. In most democracies, the only legal requirements for voting or for holding public office have to do with age, residence, and citizenship. The democratic process permits citizens to vote by secret ballot, free from force or bribes. It also requires that election results be protected against dishonesty.

15. 1. Majority Rule and Minority Rights • In a democracy, a decision often must be approved by a majority of voters before it may take effect. This principle, which is called majority rule, may be used to elect officials or decide a policy. Democracies sometimes decide votes by plurality. Most democracies go beyond a simple majority to make fundamental or constitutional changes. In the United States, constitutional amendments must be ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states or by special conventions called in three-fourths of the states. Majority rule is based on the idea that if all citizens are equal, the judgment of the many will be better than the judgment of the few. Democracy values freely given consent as the basis of legitimate and effective political power. However, democracies are also concerned with protecting individual liberty and preventing government from infringing on the freedoms of individuals. Democratic countries guarantee that certain rights can never be taken from the people, even by extremely large majorities.

16. These rights include the basic freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and religious worship. The majority also must recognize the right of the minority to try to become the majority by legal means. Political parties are a necessary part of democratic government. Rival parties make elections meaningful by giving voters a choice among candidates who represent different interests and points of view. The United States and Great Britain have chiefly two-party systems. Many democratic countries have multi-party systems, which have more than two major parties. Often in these countries, no single party gains a majority in the legislature. As a result, two or more parties must join to make up such a majority. These parties form a coalition government. In democratic countries, the party or parties that are out of power serve as the ‘loyal opposition’. That is, they criticize the policies and actions of the party in power. In various dictatorships, criticism of the party in power may be labeled as treason. Often, only the ‘government party’ is allowed to exist. The people have no real choice among candidates, and no opportunity to express dissatisfaction with the government.

17. 2. Controls on Power • Democracies have various arrangements to prevent any person or branch of government from becoming too powerful. For example, the U.S. Constitution divides political power between the states and the federal government. Some powers belong only to the states, some only to the federal government, and some are shared by both. The Constitution further divides the powers of the U.S. government among the President, Congress, and the federal courts. The power of each branch is designed to check or balance the power of the others. In all democratic countries, government officials are subject to the law and are accountable to the people. Officials may be removed from office for lawless conduct or for other serious reasons. The communications media help keep elected officials sensitive to public opinion.

18. 3. Constitutional Government • Democratic government is based on law and, in most cases, a written constitution. Constitutions state the powers and duties of government and limit what the government may do. Constitutions also say how laws shall be made and enforced. Most constitutions have a detailed bill of rights that describes the basic liberties of the people and forbids the government to violate those rights. Constitutions that have been in effect for a long time may include certain unwritten procedures that have become important parts of the operation of government. Such procedures are a matter of custom rather than written law. Britain has no single written document called ‘the constitution’. In that country, however, certain customs and convention, as well as certain major documents and many laws, are widely accepted as the ‘basic rules of the system’.

19. An essential characteristic of democratic government is an independent judiciary. It is the duty of the justice system to protect the integrity of the ‘rules’ and the rights of individuals under these rules, especially against the government itself. Occasionally, dictatorships establish very elaborate constitutions and extensive lists of basic rights of citizens. Private Organizations: In a democracy, individuals and private organizations carry on many social and economic activities that are, for the most part, free of government control. For example, newspapers and magazines are privately owned and managed. Labor unions are run by and for the benefit of workers, not the state. Democratic governments generally do not interfere with religious worship.

20. Private schools operate along with public schools. The people may form groups to influence opinion on public issues and policies. Most businesses in democratic societies are privately owned and managed. Britain, Sweden, and other democracies have government ownership and control of certain basic industries and services. In dictatorial societies, the government alone may organize and control most associations. The people are not permitted to establish or join most groups without the permission of the state. In some countries, the government almost completely owns and manages the economy.

21. Rousseau, On the Social Contract

22. Introductory Notes • The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right (1762) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is the book in which Rousseau theorized about social contracts. Rousseau expounded the belief that the ideal society is one in which a man’s contract was between himself and his fellow men, not between him and a government. Everyone has a natural right to self-preservation. One has legitimate authority over another only if that authority is used to help the subordinate person to survive. Respect for or acknowledgment of authority, as can be seen in the family when the dependent child reaches maturity and may choose to submit to the authority of the parent, is always entered into voluntarily. Since moral authority of one person or group over another can be derived neither from nature nor from force, it must arise from convention.

23. Like John Locke, Rousseau believed that a government could only be legitimate if it has been sanctioned by the people, in the role of the sovereign. Rousseau claimed that a perfect society would be controlled by the ‘"general will’ of its populace. While he does not define exactly how this should be accomplished as there are many possible ways, each suited to different situations, he suggests that assemblies be held in which the every citizen can assist in determining the general will. Without this input from the people, there can be no legitimate government. Importantly, this input cannot come from representatives, but must be from the people themselves. The Sovereign, having no force other than the legislative power, acts only by means of the laws; and the laws being solely the authentic acts of the general will, the Sovereign cannot act save when the people is assembled.

24. Every law the people has not ratified in person is invalid is, in fact, not a law. “The legislative power belongs to the people, and can belong to it alone.” The Social Contract was a progressive work that helped inspire political reforms or revolutions in Europe, especially in France. The Social Contract finally expelled the myth that the King was appointed by God to legislate; as Rousseau asserts, only the people, in the form of the sovereign, have that all-powerful right. The heart of the idea of the social contract may be stated simply: Each of us places his person and authority under the supreme direction of the general will, and the group receives each individual as an indivisible part of the whole. Overview: The stated aim of the Social Contract is to determine whether there can be a legitimate political authority. Man was born free, but he is everywhere in chains. In order to accomplish more and remove himself from the state of nature, a man must enter into a Social Contract with others. In this social contract, everyone will be free because all forfeit the same amount of freedom and impose the same duties on all. Rousseau also argues that it is illogical for a man to surrender his freedom for slavery, and so, the participants must be free. Furthermore, although the contract imposes new law, especially on property, a person can exit it at any time, except in a time of need, and is again as free as when he was born.

25. Rousseau posits that any administration, whatever form it takes, should be divided into two parts. First, there must be the sovereign, which could be the whole population if that is the majority's desire that represents the general will and is the legislative power within the state. The second division is that of the government, being distinct from the sovereign. This division must be since the sovereign cannot deal with particular matters it is then acting as particular wills and not the general will the sovereign is no longer whole and therefore ruined, like applications of the law. Therefore, a government must be separate from that of the sovereign body. Rousseau claims that the size of the territory to be governed often decides the nature of the government. Since a government is only as strong as the people are, and this strength is absolute, the larger the territory the more strength the government must be able to exert over the populace. In his view, a monarchal government is able to wield the most power over the people since it has to devote less power to itself, while a democracy the least. In general, the larger the bureaucracy is, the more power required for government discipline. Normally, this relationship requires the state to be an aristocracy or monarchy. In light of all this, Rousseau seems to prefer a benevolent Tyrant to any other form of leadership including a true democracy; however, he remains obscure on this point.

26. Book I

27. Chapter I • Subject of the First Book: Rousseau begins with the famous phrase, “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” This constitutes a change in the human condition, the legitimacy of which Rousseau sets out to address. He sets his target on a defense of the legitimacy of government and the ‘social order’. The social order is identified as a foundational ‘sacred’ right with its origins in convention, not nature.

28. Chapter 2 • Of the First Societies: “There is no natural authority of one individual over another.” Rousseau starts out with a view on original social structures similar to Locke's. The only natural society is the family in which the dependence of children imposes on the father a responsibility for the care of his children, and on the children a duty to obey the father. Those constraints are dissolved when the children reach the stage where they no longer need the care of the father. If the children continue to be governed by the father after this time, it must be due to their consent. Thus, subsequent obligations are conventional. It follows that all human beings who have reached the age of reason are free. The task is to preserve this freedom.

29. Chapter 3 • On Slavery: “Since no man has a natural authority over his fellow man, and since force does not give rise to any right, conventions therefore remain the basis of all legitimate authority among men.” In other words, all legitimate authority is conventional. Alienation is the giving or selling of something. Can people alienate their liberty? To sell oneself to another would be to subject oneself to slavery. What could possibly be gained by a people selling himself to a king? Rousseau surveys the options and concludes that there is no benefit to be gained from such a transaction. Thus, it would be irrational. Even if people could alienate themselves, they could not legitimately alienate their children because each person's liberty belongs to them alone. Thus, for an arbitrary government to be legitimate, it would therefore be necessary in each generation for the people to be master of its acceptance or rejection. This raises problems for the continuity of legitimate authority. To renounce one’s liberty is to renounce one's dignity, human rights, and duties.

30. Such a renunciation is incompatible with human nature. Rousseau considers the argument, from Grotius and accepted by Locke, that slavery is a just outcome of war in that both sides profit from it. The person who may legitimately be killed is given back his life in exchange for service to his master. War does not exist in the state of nature where there is no ‘constant property’. It is dependent on property and is defined as a relation between states, not between human beings. The purpose of war is the destruction of a state. Thus, killing the defenders of the state is legitimate and a right. However, as soon as a soldier surrenders, he or she becomes an individual human being not an instrument of the enemy. Thus, one no longer has a right to take the lives of soldiers who have surrendered in war. It follows that slavery is not a just outcome of war.

31. Chapter 4 • That it is always necessary to Return to a First Convention: There is a crucial distinction to be made between ‘subduing a multitude and ruling a society’. Private interest defines the former, which can never be legitimate. Grotius claims that a people can give itself to a king, but that presupposes the prior existence of ‘a people’. Thus, according to Rousseau, we must first examine the nature of ‘a people’ since that is the true foundation of society. • Who gives the majority a right to choose for all, including a dissenting minority? A government organized according to majority rule is a convention, the justice of which presupposes an original unanimity.

32. Chapter 5 • The Conditions Necessary for Becoming ‘a People’: At some point, it becomes necessary for human beings to form an organized body. Given that one's individual liberty and power are necessary for survival, under what conditions could they be compromised without harm to oneself? “Find a form of association which defends and protects with all common forces the person and goods of each associate, and by means of which each one, while uniting with all, nevertheless obeys only himself and remains as free as before...” This is achieved when each person ‘associate’ alienates all rights to the entire community. This condition applies equally to all, thus no one stands to gain from it at the expense of others. In giving oneself completely to the community, ‘each person gives himself to no one’. Statement of the Social Contract: “Each of us places his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will; and as one we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.”

33. Chapter 6 • On the Sovereign: The social contract gives rise to a reciprocal relationship and commitment as a member of the group or sovereign to the individuals, including oneself, and as an individual to the group as a whole of which one is a part. While the sovereign group cannot act contrary to its own interests, a tension exists between private interests individual will and the common interest general will. Thus, force is necessary to maintain order and freedom.

34. Chapter 7 • On the Civil State: This passage from the state of nature to the civil state produces quite a remarkable change in man, for it substitutes justice for instinct in his behavior and gives his actions a moral quality they previously lacked. Only then, when the voice of duty replaces physical impulse and right replaces appetite, does man, who had hitherto considered only himself, find himself forced to act upon other principles and to consult his reason before listening to his inclinations. The loss of ‘natural liberty' is more than compensated for by the gain of civil liberty. Rousseau • is here distinguishing natural liberty, a freedom limited solely by the power and desire of the individual, and civil liberty, which is limited by the general, will. He also distinguishes possession, the power of the first occupant, from property, which entails a positive title. ‘Moral liberty’ is defined as obedience to the law one prescribes for oneself.

35. Chapter 8 • On the Real Domain: Rights to property are determined by need and labor. Everyone has a natural right to everything he or she needs to survive. Property rights impose a duty to respect ‘what does not belong to oneself’. Conditions for the Right of the First Occupant: The land must not be currently occupied. No one may take more land than needed to subsist. One must take possession by means of one's labor by cultivating it. The social contract enables a new kind of 'equality'. In virtue of convention and right, all human beings in the body politic are made legitimate moral equals regardless of the physical inequalities that may have separated them on the basis of intelligence and strength in the state of nature.

36. BOOK 2

37. CHAPTER 1 • That Sovereignty is Inalienable: The opposition of private interests make society necessary; at the same time the accord of these interests make it possible.” It is what these different interests have in common that forms the social bond, and, were there no point of agreement among all these interests, no society could exist. For it is utterly on the basis of this common interest that society ought to be governed.” The general will is the only thing that can guide a state to the common good, which is its proper and initial goal. This follows from the fact that the social bond in a society is based on shared private interests. This is what the people have in common, a set of shared interests. This is the only foundation for social organization and government. Since sovereignty is identical to the exercise of the general will, it cannot be alienated. Thus, only the sovereign can represent itself. Since the private will tends toward individual preferences, and the general will toward equality, they do not always agree.

38. Chapter 2 • That Sovereignty is Indivisible: “Sovereignty is indivisible for the same reason that it is inalienable. For either the will is general, or it is not. It is the will either of the people as a whole or of only a part. In the first case, this declared will is an act of sovereignty and constitutes law. In the second case, it is merely a private will.”

39. Chapter 3 • On Whether the Will Can Err: “The general will is always right and always tends toward the public utility.” It does not follow, however, that the deliberations of the people are infallible. They always want what is good for them, but do not always know what that is. Thus, the ‘will of all’ is not identical to ‘the general will’. The general will is always determined by the ‘general interest’; the will of all is merely the sum of private wills and is determined by private interests. The general will is the ‘sum of the differences’ of the will of all.

40. Chapter 4 • On the Limits of Sovereign Power: An act of sovereignty is an agreement of the body with each of its members, not an arrangement between a superior and an inferior. The general will is not directed toward particulars. It is directed to all equally and never to individuals. Thus, to impose restrictions on one and not on another would be beyond the limits of sovereign power. “Any function that relates to the individual does not belong to the legislative power.” • An act of sovereignty is • 1. Legitimate because it is based on the social contract • 2. equitable because it is common to all • 3. useful because it is directed to the common good • 4. solid because it is backed by public force and supreme power • The social contract involves an advantageous exchange of • 1. natural independence for liberty • 2. power to harm others for the sake of security • 3. individual but vulnerable force for an ‘invincible right’

41. Chapter 5 • : On Law: “Goodness and order are objective conditions. All justice comes from God and is based on reason.” Laws are necessary conventions since justice is not administered naturally. Rousseau introduces an important clarification of the claim that individuals are outside the limits of the sovereign. “The law can perfectly well enact a statute to the effect that there be privileges, but it cannot bestow them by name on anyone. The law can create several classes of citizens, and even stipulate the qualifications that determine membership in these classes, but it cannot name specific persons to be admitted to them. It can establish a royal government and a hereditary line of succession, but it cannot elect a king or name a royal family. In a word, any function that relates to an individual does not belong to the legislative power.” Thus, humans are both free and subject to laws since the law is merely a record of their own wills. Rousseau defines a republic as ‘a state ruled by laws’ since it allows the public interest to govern, but then Rousseau raises a problem.

42. “The regulating of the conditions of society belongs to no one but those who are in association with one another, but how will they regulate these conditions? Will it be by a common accord, by a sudden inspiration? Does the body politic have an organ for making known its will? Who will give it the necessary foresight to formulate acts and to promulgate them in advance, or how will it announce them in time of need? How will a blind multitude, which often does not know what it wants since it rarely knows what is good for it, carry out on its own an enterprise as great and as difficult as a system of legislation? By itself the populace always wants the good, but by itself it does not always see it.”

43. Chapter 6 • On the Legislator: “Discovering the rules of society best suited to nations would require a superior intelligence that beheld all the passions of men without feeling any of them. At the birth of institutions, says Montesquieu, it is the leaders of republics who bring about the institution, and thereafter it is the institution that forms the leaders of the republic.” “All emancipation is the leading back of the human world and of human relationships and conditions, to man himself. Political emancipation is the reduction of man to a member of civil society, to an egoistic independent individual, on the one hand and to a citizen, a moral person, on the other. Only when an individual man has taken back into himself the abstract citizen and has become a species-being in his everyday life, in his individual work and his individual circumstances, only when he has recognized and organized his own powers as social powers so that social power is no longer separated from him as political power, only then is human emancipation complete.” The person in the best position to establish laws is one who is not in power. Thus, Rousseau believes that it takes a special inspiration to move people beyond their individual interests to a shared sentiment and the common good. That is the role of the legislator. In proposing such a scheme, Rousseau acknowledges a non-rational basis as a necessary precondition for deliberate, rational legislation.

44. BOOK 3

45. CHAPTER 1 • On Government in General: Every free action is caused by a moral will (desire) and a physical power (ability). In the body politic, actions are caused in the same way by legislative power and executive power. The need for communication and unified action on the part of the body politic gives rise to government. It is an intermediary between subjects and sovereign for communication and execution of laws and the preservation of civil and political liberty. Members of the government are magistrates or governors; the entire body is called the prince. Thus, the government is founded not on a literal contract but a trust placed in the governors to administer the executive power of government. SUBJECTS <----> GOVERNMENT <----> SOVEREIGN The government facilitates correspondence, executes laws, and maintains civil & political liberties. Government is executive not legislative, it is subordinate to the sovereign body, and it is variable, i.e. it must take different forms to serve the different needs of states.

46. Why does a state need a government? • 1. Legislation is general, i.e. a rule for all to follow. • 2. General laws need, from time to time, to be applied to individuals. • 3. This is not a proper legislative task. Rousseau thinks there is no reason to trust the sovereign to act justly in cases involving individuals. Keep in mind that the sovereign legislative body is the whole body of citizens. It would clearly be impractical to bring them all together to rule on each specific case that might arise. • 4. Thus, a government is needed to execute laws. • 5. Thus, the government is executive, not legislative. • 6. it is subordinate to the sovereign and, as such, its authority is derived from the sovereign. • 7. it may take any one of a number of different forms. • 8. it is the locus of a factional ("corporate") will distinct from both the general will and from the particular, private will of individuals. This will tend toward an increase in power and can pose a threat to the sovereign.

47. CHAPTER 2 • On the Principle that Constitutes the Various Forms of Government: With the famous phrase, “Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains,” Rousseau asserts that modern states repress the physical freedom that is our birthright, and do nothing to secure the civil freedom for the sake of which we enter into civil society. Legitimate political authority, he suggests, comes only from a social contract agreed upon by all citizens for their mutual preservation. Rousseau calls the collective grouping of all citizens the ‘sovereign’, and claims that it should be considered in many ways to be like an individual person. While each individual has a particular will that aims for his own best interest, the sovereign expresses the general will that aims for the common good. The sovereign only has authority over matters that are of public concern, but in this domain its authority is absolute. Rousseau recommends the death penalty for those who violate the social contract. The general will find its clearest expression in the general and abstract laws of the state, which are created early in that state's life by an impartial, non-citizen lawgiver.

48. All laws must ensure liberty and equality: beyond that, they may vary depending on local circumstances. While the sovereign exercises legislative power by means of the laws, states also need a government to exercise executive power, carrying out day-to-day business. There are many different forms of government, but they can roughly be divided into democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy, depending on their size. Monarchy is the strongest form of government, and is best suited to large populations and hot climates. While different states are suited to different forms of government, Rousseau maintains that aristocracies tend to be the most stable. The government is distinct from the sovereign, and the two are usually in friction. This friction will ultimately destroy the state, but healthy states can last many centuries before they dissolve. The people exercise their sovereignty by meeting in regular, periodic assemblies. It is often difficult to persuade all citizens to attend these assemblies, but attendance is essential to the well-being of the state. When citizens elect representatives or try to buy their way out of public service, the general will shall not be heard and the state will become endangered. When voting in assemblies, people should not vote for what they want personally, but for what they believe is the general will. In a healthy state, the results of these votes should approach unanimity. To prove that even large states can assemble all their citizens, Rousseau takes the example of the Roman republic and its comitia. Rousseau recommends the establishment of a tribunate to mediate between government and sovereign and government and people. In cases of emergency, brief dictatorships may be necessary. The role of the censor's office is to voice public opinion. While everyone should be free to observe their personal beliefs in private, Rousseau suggests that the state also require all citizens to observe a public religion that encourages good citizenship.

49. Terms • 1. Civil Society: Civil society is the opposite of the state of nature: it is what we enter into when we agree to live in a community. With civil society comes civil freedom and the social contract. By agreeing to live together and look out for one another, we learn to be rational and moral, and to temper our brute instincts.

50. 2. Common Good: The common good is what is in the best interests of society as a whole. This is what the social contract is meant to achieve, and it is what the general will aims at.