Rousseau’s Social Contract:

By the Amazing Shane Smith

“Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in

chains”
The Social Contract (also known as “Principles of Political Right”) was a book written in 1762
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a philosophes and writer during the French Revolution.

The book outlined Rousseau’s personal theories about the best sort of government as he was
personally unhappy about the current corporate society. Rousseau believed that a
government was only valid if it had been authorized by the people, as the perfect society
would be controlled by the general will of the population. Because the “General Will” governs
the country, this means that every individual citizen must have a say in every single matter
and not a representative of the people. This means that every single law that is passed must
be approved by the entire nation. This can be over ridden, of course, if it is in the General
Will of the people to have representation in the form of a Sovereign.

The Social Contract outlined two distinct separations. The first of these two is a Sovereign
which governs the general running of the country, can be a single person, or the entire
country depending on the General Will of the people. The Sovereign deal with legislative
matters and acts as a representative of the people if this is their wish. The second part is
the government which deals with particular matters (such as the application of laws) rather
than the general matters. The reason the government must exist is because if the
Sovereign was to deal with particular matters, then the Sovereign wouldn’t be acting in the
interest of the General Will but rather the Particular Will which nullifies the existence of a
Sovereign in the first place.