 Title page of the first octavo edition | |
| Author | Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
|---|---|
| Original title | Du contrat social; ou, Principes du droit politique |
| Language | French |
Publication date | 1762 |
| Publication place | France (edited inAmsterdam) |
Original text | Du contrat social; ou, Principes du droit politique at FrenchWikisource |
| Translation | The Social Contract; or, Principles of Political Right at Wikisource |
The Social Contract, originally published asOn the Social Contract; or, Principles of Political Right (French:Du contrat social; ou, Principes du droit politique), is a 1762 French-language book by theGenevan philosopherJean-Jacques Rousseau. The book theorizes about how to establish legitimate authority in a politicalcommunity, that is, one compatible with individual freedom, in the face of the problems of commercial society, which Rousseau had already identified in hisDiscourse on Inequality (1755).
The Social Contract helped inspire political reforms or revolutions in Europe, especiallyin France.The Social Contract argued against the idea that monarchs were divinely empowered to legislate. Rousseau asserts that only thegeneral will of the people has the right to legislate, for only under the general will can the people be said to obey only themselves and hence be free. Although Rousseau's notion of the general will is subject to much interpretive controversy, it seems to involve a legislature consisting of all adult members of the political community who are restricted to legislating general laws for the common good.
Theepigraph of the work is "foederis aequas / dicamus leges" ("Let us set equal terms for the truce") (Virgil,Aeneid XI.321–22). The stated aim ofThe Social Contract is to determine whether there can be a legitimate political authority, since people's interactions he saw at his time seemed to put them in a state far worse than the good one they were at in thestate of nature, even though living in isolation. He concludes book one, chapter three with, "Let us then admit that force does not create right, and that we are obliged to obey only legitimate powers", which is to say, the ability to coerce is not a legitimate power―might does not make right, and the people have no duty to submit to it. Astate has no right to enslave a conquered people.
Rousseau argues that legitimate authority must be compatible with individual freedom. Such authority can only be compatible with individual freedom if it is consented to, and hence there must be asocial contract. However, Rousseau's conception of this social contract was different to that of thinkers before him, such asGrotius,Hobbes, andPufendorf.[2]: 75 For Rousseau, since one's right to freedom is inalienable, the people cannot obligate themselves to obey someone other than themselves. Transferring rights to an authority involved renunciation of freedom and transformed the natural equality of men into subjection.[2]: 77 Hence, the only legitimate social contract is one that establishes the people themselves as the rulers. Rousseau refers to the united will of the people as thegeneral will.[2]: 85 The general will, to be truly general, must only legislate laws with general form, i.e., laws that apply equally to all. For Rousseau, collective self-rule would increase freedom if the people to whom laws applied were also the ones prescribing them.[2]: 79 Rousseau, who objected to extreme wealth inequality, also argued that equality is essential for the attainment of liberty, and concluded that legislation ought to preserve equality.[3][2]: 80
Rousseau argues that the sovereign power must be separate from the government, which in Rousseau's terminology refers to theexecutive power. The division of sovereign from government is necessary because the sovereign cannot deal with particular matters like applications of the law.[2]: 89 Doing so would undermine its generality, and therefore damage its legitimacy. Thus, the government must remain a separate institution from the sovereign body. When the government exceeds the boundaries set in place by the people, it is the mission of the people to abolish such government and begin anew.
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, and this strength is absolute, the larger the territory, the more strength the government must be able to exert over the populace (cf. alsoTurner'sfrontier thesis for the case of America). In his view, a monarchical 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 thebureaucracy, the more power required for government discipline. Normally, this relationship requires the state to be anaristocracy ormonarchy. When Rousseau uses the word democracy, he refers to an executive composed of all or most of the people (Bk. 3, Ch. 3, Para. 2) rather than to arepresentative democracy. Rousseau argues that it is the people themselves, not their representatives, who have supreme power, and that everyone taking part in legislation is a check against abuse of power.[2]: 83 In light of the relation between population size and governmental structure, Rousseau argues that like his nativeGeneva, smallcity-states are the form of the nation in which freedom can best flourish.[2]: 82 For states of this size, an elected aristocracy is preferable, and in very large states a benevolent monarch; but even monarchical rule, to be legitimate, must be subordinate to the sovereign rule of law.
Upon publication, the distribution ofThe Social Contract in France was prohibited, and Rousseau fled the country to avoid imprisonment.[2]: 99 However, it was primarily Rousseau's chapter on civil religion, rather than his ideas on liberty and sovereignty, that caused the controversy.
In America,Noah Webster borrowed heavily fromThe Social Contract to writeSketches of American Policy (1785), one of the earliest widely-published arguments for a strong central government in America.[4]
Immanuel Kant, one of the most influentialmoral philosophers inWestern philosophy, acknowledged his debt to Rousseau's work inpolitical philosophy, of whichThe Social Contract is perhaps the closest to a complete statement. Kant wrote, "I myself am a researcher by inclination. I feel the entire thirst forcognition and the eager restlessness to proceed further in it, as well as the satisfaction at every acquisition. There was a time when I believed this alone could constitute the honour of humankind, and I despised the rabble who knows nothing. Rousseau has set me right. This blinding prejudice vanishes, I learn to honour human beings, and I would feel by far less useful than the common labourer if I did not believe that this consideration could impart a value to all others in order to establish the rights of humanity." (Refl. 20:44)
The French philosopherVoltaire used his publications to criticise and mock Rousseau, but also to defendfree expression. In hisIdées républicaines (1765), he reacted to the news thatThe Social Contract had been burned inGeneva, saying "The operation of burning it was perhaps as odious as that of writing it. […] To burn a book of argument is to say: 'We do not have enough wit to reply to it.'"[5][6] The work was also banned inParis[7] and was forbidden by theChurch being listed on theIndex Librorum Prohibitorum.[a]
The work received a refutation calledThe Confusion of the Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau by the JesuitAlfonso Muzzarelli in Italy in 1794.[8]
The influence of Rousseau onMaximilien Robespierre from his diary during theEstates General of 1789:
Divine man! It was you who taught me to know myself. When I was young you brought me to appreciate the true dignity of my nature and to reflect on the great principles which govern the social order . . . . I saw you in your last days and for me the recollection of the time will always be a source of proud joy. I contemplated your august features and saw there the imprint of those dark griefs which the injustice of man inflicted on you.[9]
Thomas Carlyle assessed its impact:
and now has not Jean Jacques promulgated his newEvangel of aContrat Social; explaining the whole mystery of Government, and how it iscontracted and bargained for,—to universal satisfaction? Theories of Government! Such have been, and will be; in ages of decadence. Acknowledge them in their degree; as processes of Nature, who does nothing in vain; as steps in her great process. Meanwhile, what theory is so certain as this, That all theories, were they never so earnest, painfully elaborated, are, and, by the very conditions of them, must be incomplete, questionable, and even false? Thou shalt know that this Universe is, what it professes to be, aninfinite one. Attempt not to swallowit, for thy logical digestion; be thankful, if skilfully planting down this and the other fixed pillar in the chaos, thou prevent its swallowingthee. That a new young generation has exchanged theScepticCreed,What shall I believe? for passionate Faith in thisGospel according to Jean Jacques is a further step in the business; and betokens much.
He advised: "In such prophesiedLubberland, of Happiness, Benevolence, and Vice cured of its deformity, trust not, my friends! . . . Is notSentimentalism twin-sister toCant, if not one and the same with it? Is not Cant themateria prima of the Devil; from which all falsehoods, imbecilities, abominations body themselves; from which no true thingcan come? For Cant is itself properly a double-distilled Lie; the second-power of a Lie."[3]
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