Rousseau`s Social Contract Essays - Libertarian Theory, Sovereignty

Rousseau`s Social Contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a fascinating individual whose unorthodox ideas and passionate prose caused a flurry of interest in 18th century France. Rousseau's greatest work were published in 1762 -The Social Contract. Rousseau society itself is an implicit agreement to live together for the good of everyone with individual equality and freedom. However, people have enslaved themselves by giving over their power to governments which are not truly sovereign because they do not promote the general will. Rousseau believed that only the will of all the people together granted sovereignty. Various forms of government are instituted to legislate and enforce the laws. He wrote, "The first duty of the legislator is to make the laws conformable to the general will, the first rule of public economy is that the administration of justice should be conformable to the laws." His natural political philosophy echoes the way of Lao Tzu: "The greatest talent a ruler can possess is to disguise his power, in order to render it less odious, and to conduct the State so peaceably as to make it seem to have no need of conductors." Rousseau valued his citizenship in Geneva where he was born, and he was one of the first strong voices for democratic principles. "There can be no patriotism without liberty, no liberty without virtue, no virtue without citizens; create citizens, and you have everything you need; without them, you will have nothing but debased slaves, from the rulers of the State downwards." In the civil order, there can be any sure and legitimate rule of administration, men being taken as they are and laws as they might be. In this inquiry we shall endeavor always to unite what right sanctions with what is prescribed by interest, in order that justice and utility may in no case be divided. We enter upon this task without proving the importance of the subject. We shall be asked if we are the prince or the legislator, to write on politics. We answer that we am neither, and that is why we do so. If I were a prince or a legislator, I should not waste time in saying what wants doing; I should do it, or hold my peace. As we were born citizens of a free state, and a member of the sovereign, we should feel, however feeble the influence of our voice can have on public affairs, the right of voting on them makes it our duty to study them: and we are happy, when we reflect upon governments, to find the inquiries always furnish us with new reasons for loving that of our own country. Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they. How did this change come about? we do not know. What can make it legitimate? That question can be answered. If we took into account only force, and the effects derived from it, "as long as a people is compelled to obey, and obeys, it does well; as soon as it can shake off the yoke, and shakes it off, it does still better; for, regaining its liberty by the same right as took it away, either it is justified in resuming it, or there was no justification for those who took it away." But the social order is a sacred right which is the basis of all other rights. Nevertheless, this right does not come from nature, and must therefore be founded on conventions. Before coming to that, we have to prove what has just been asserted. The most ancient of all societies, and the only one that is natural, is the family: and even so the children remain attached to the father only so long as they need him for their preservation. As soon as this need ceases, the natural bond is dissolved. The children, released from the obedience they owed to the father, and the father, released from the care he owed his children, return equally to independence. If they remain united, they continue so no longer naturally, but voluntarily; and the family itself is then maintained only by convention. This common liberty results from the nature of man. His first law is to provide for his own preservation, his first cares are those which he owes to himself; and, as soon as he reaches years of discretion, he is the sole judge of the proper means of preserving himself, and consequently becomes his own master. The family