The Social

Contract
Study Guide by Course Hero

Rousseau attempts to work through and synthesize features of

What's Inside diverse political theories. At its core is the dedication to valuing
human freedom and equality, and promoting the collective
goodwill.
j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1
ABOUT THE TITLE
a Main Ideas .................................................................................................... 1 The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Rights, is Jean-
Jacques Rousseau's analysis of a legitimate state. That
d In Context .................................................................................................... 3
legitimacy derives from the idea of a contract or association
a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 5 entered into by free and equal people—hence the contract's
"social" nature. People enter into an agreement in a civil
h Key Figures ................................................................................................. 7 society in order to preserve and protect themselves and their
freedoms. The constitution and laws that govern public life
k Plot Summary ........................................................................................... 10
articulate this contract; they declare the general will of the
citizenry—the collective body Rousseau calls the "Sovereign."
c Chapter Summaries .............................................................................. 12

g Quotes ........................................................................................................ 28

m Glossary ...................................................................................................... 31 a Main Ideas

e Suggested Reading ............................................................................... 31

The State of Nature, Equality,

j Book Basics and Liberty
AUTHOR Jean-Jacques Rousseau believes certain concepts and
Jean-Jacques Rousseau activities taken for granted in modern life are not natural to
human beings. These include property, inequality, and law. In
YEAR PUBLISHED the state of nature, human beings are free and equal. They are
1762 free in that they can do what they want, and they are moral
equals in that no one person's liberty is superior to another's.
GENRE
This freedom is essentially freedom from the coercive effects
Philosophy
of a civil society governed by one or more people who do not
AT A GLANCE have their subjects' best interests in mind. Moreover, people
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's political thought was influenced by are free from the arbitrary requirements of society.
events of the day, contemporaries such as French lawyer Expectations to conform to societal norms and contrived
Montesquieu, fellow 18th-century Enlightenment era thinkers needs create psychological dependency and make people
(such as English philosopher John Locke), and Greek vulnerable to domination. That dependency is not limited to the
philosophers Aristotle and Plato. In The Social Contract weak and poor, it is also created by luxury and wealth.
The Social Contract Study Guide Main Ideas 2

Freedom in the state of nature is not, however, absolute. It is not specify which type of government a civil society should
restricted by the imperative of self-preservation and, more adopt, though he has a preference for aristocracy. His
generally, instinct and desires. These desires or passions neutrality on this issue is based on his view that there are
generate real and perceived needs. Real needs are those that myriad variables that make one form of government preferable
ensure survival, such as food and reproduction. Perceived to another. The most common forms, however, are monarchy
needs are generated in a society. These will include things (single rule), aristocracy (small group rule), and democracy
such as friendship and property. (large group/societal rule).

A legitimate civil society will preserve at least an approximation It is worth reiterating a distinction Rousseau makes between
of natural freedom, which is largely concentrated in the general the Sovereign and the government. The Sovereign is the body
will. By focusing on the good of the whole, the artificial needs politic, the collective legislating voice of the citizenry. The
that create dependence and inequality will not arise. government is not the Sovereign. It does not represent the
people but instead ensures that their voice is heard by
Rousseau still has to reconcile what appears to be a potential enforcing law.
conflict between the individual will and the general will. His
accounts of the general will and sovereignty offer a synthesis.
Although sovereignty can override the individual will, there is
no inconsistency, to the extent that this will is also a part of the
Sovereignty, the General Will,
general will and the general will is formalized in the Sovereign.
and the Will of All
Rousseau is also criticized for apparently maintaining
inconsistent positions on the nature of society. At times he Sovereignty is the general will. The general will is the voice of

seems to favor communitarianism, and at other times, the citizens. In their hands, all social power is vested. The

liberalism. Both are arguably reconciled by the source of the purpose of the Sovereign is to secure freedom and equality for

general will that aims at the common good. To the extent that all. Fulfilling this role is what gives the Sovereign moral

an individual's will does not interfere with the common good, legitimacy. According to Rousseau, the general will is an

there is no impediment to individual liberty. Moreover, what infallible voice of the public good, and it is the Sovereign's

makes the general will possible is the assumption that what is obligation to protect it. While the general will organizes the

common to each individual is the desire for liberty, self- form of government and creates laws, for example, it is neutral

preservation, and security—all of which the Sovereign is meant with respect to the particularities; its sole aim is the public

to articulate in law. good. The general will is, effectively, an idea. It is formalized
and embodied by sovereignty and the political body that
assembles to debate and legislate.

Civil Society, Government, Law, Rousseau distinguishes the general from the collective will,
which facilitates understanding the former. The collective will is
and the Common Good simply the sum of individual wills, in all their particularities and
differences. There is no unifying of such disparate wills, even if
Civil society is the opposite of the state of nature. The they are collected in factions. Hence, the general will, which
formation of civil society, Rousseau contends, has its origins in has one aim on which all can agree, serves, essentially, as a
the family. Led by the father, whose love for his children single will.
inspires his desire for their best interests, children eventually
gain their independence. Mapped onto a civil society, the
common good becomes the aim of the general will, and the
general will preserves civil freedom through enacting law. Law,
Individual Freedom
in turn, is applicable to the populace, not individual citizens as
According to Rousseau, individual freedom is one's natural
such.
state. This freedom is preserved and protected by the social

It is the government's role to implement laws. Rousseau does contract. It is also balanced against an orderly society in which

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The Social Contract Study Guide In Context 3

the good of all is protected. So, from the standpoint of the of human reason to seek and find answers to the most
Sovereign, the imperative is that the individual will be one and important questions about knowledge, nature, politics, art, and
the same as the general will—or at the very least, the individual ethics. Religious authority and dogma were thrown over in
will cannot usurp the general will. One's private interests favor of a burgeoning scientific method and faith in rationality.
cannot be taken to be the interests of everyone else. The
power of the Sovereign guarantees a domain of Some features of Rousseau's religious views fit well in the

freedom—indeed, equal freedom for all—under law. Apart from Enlightenment context. Rousseau argued in Émile for the view

participation in sovereign affairs, individual freedom is not that all religions are of equal value, insofar as they lead

brooked by political authority. believers to a virtuous life. This conclusion reflects the
Enlightenment preference of religious belief over submission to
an authoritarian church. Meanwhile, Rousseau's passion for

Parliamentary Assembly nature, from which his veneration of feeling is likely derived,
along with his erratic and passionate friendships and
romances, anticipates and gives voice to Romanticism. Still,
Rousseau distinguishes between the Sovereign and the
Rousseau's lifelong appreciation of nature was combined with
government. Government is separate from the people, because
an appropriately Enlightenment-era intellectual interest in
it must maintain both its impartiality and legitimacy. The
understanding it.
Sovereign, as a body, is the collective of all citizens. The
government is the administrative arm of the state. As the Rousseau's thesis, first articulated in his 1750 essay The
executive branch, it executes and administers the laws Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, continues throughout his
generated by the Sovereign. work. This thesis states there is a direct relationship between
intellectual conformity and moral degeneration. In other words,
When the citizens come together in the "People's Assembly,"
the cultivation of rational faculties within a system laden with
laws are proposed and voted on. Their task is to determine
pretext and decoration dulls the natural goodness associated
"whether it does or does not conform to the general will, which
with freedom. According to Rousseau, human beings are
is theirs." By casting ballots, each expresses their opinion. The
naturally independent and self-sufficient. Society weakens
"tally of the votes yields the declaration of the general will."
humans by increasing dependence.
Rousseau is adamant that there be a physical assembly; that is,
that citizens appear to propose and vote on law. Moreover,
these assemblies must be regular.
Divine Monarchs and
Revolution
d In Context
Enlightenment thinkers questioned not only the authority of the
church, but also the right of divine rule. Not only was reliance
The Enlightenment on one's own reason over external authority permeating
scientific reasoning, but the related concept of autonomy was
Jean-Jacques Rousseau lived and worked during the period also taking center stage in moral and political thought.
known as the Enlightenment, which is embodied in his work in Autonomy is freedom from external control; rational autonomy
the ways in which he challenges preconceived notions of in political and moral thought emphasizes self-governance, or
religion while continuing to advocate for religious belief outside the independence of the individual to make correct use of
the dogmatic and authoritarian systems in which it was one's own reason. While thinkers such as Hobbes believed in
embodied. Some aspects of his work also identify him as a the divine right of kings, others, such as Locke, Voltaire,
precursor to the Romantic era, in which intense feeling is Montesquieu, and Rousseau, proposed forms of limited
privileged over rationality. government.

The Enlightenment period lasted for most of the 18th century. Monarchs, or kings, often viewed their rule as
It was characterized by enthusiastic confidence in the power absolute—justified by divine right. The divine right of kings

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The Social Contract Study Guide In Context 4

became a political doctrine that declared a monarch's authority liberty is shackled by instincts and desires. So, while people
to be derived from God, who was said to have put them on are free to do as they please, they are not free from their
Earth to rule. As such, the monarch claimed to be above human drives. Moreover, Rousseau maintains that property is not part
law and its institutions. The scope of this doctrine grew in the of the natural condition but instead is a form of dependence.
16th and 17th centuries to include not just authority in the
political arena but also in religious matters. In France, Louis XIV In Rousseau's view people are also naturally good. This

was an example of the sort of conduct that fomented concept is contrary to the Christian doctrine (common to both

revolution (his outlandish spending at the expense of his Catholics and Protestants) of original sin, which states that

subjects' well-being). His palace at Versailles included such every person is tainted from birth by the actions of Adam and

extravagances as crystal and gold fixtures, and copper Eve in the Garden of Eden. Thus, Rousseau's statement of his

fountain statues. belief put him at odds with the dominant power in Europe;
caused many of his works to be censured; and even
Growing resentment, along with the emergence of political endangered his life, liberty, and right to own property on
treatises focusing on new conceptions of a just government, numerous occasions.
generated events such as the French Revolution (1789–99) in
the late 18th century. People began to demand more freedom In Rousseau's worldview, civil society is the mechanism

and more autonomy, and they were willing to fight for it. whereby the natural condition is best supported. By collecting
as a single political body, called the "Sovereign," human beings
can express "the general will." This behavior is superior,

Rousseau's Conception of the Rousseau thinks, to giving up natural freedom for a sort of
enslavement that comes with the protection provided by a

State of Nature monarch or other type of government that does not have an
interest in their subjects' well-being. Instead, by associating
under a contract, written or understood, the people give up
Rousseau was not the first political theorist to imagine
natural freedom but gain both collective freedom and the
humanity's natural condition, outside a civil society—a
tempering of their natural impulses. After all, in a society one
hypothetical state of nature. English philosopher Thomas
cannot always do what one wants, because that may encroach
Hobbes, for example, famously argued in Leviathan (1651) that
on one's fellow citizens' freedoms.
the natural state of the human being is a war of all against all,
that "the life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
Humans are motivated, in Hobbes's view, purely by self-
interest. Rousseau's Influences
Rousseau, by contrast, conceived the natural condition in much Rousseau engages with political theorists of the past and
gentler terms, believing humanity to be essentially noble, present in The Social Contract. Because he lived and worked
though he agreed with Hobbes that self-interest—more during the apex of the French Enlightenment, whose
specifically, self-preservation—motivates human action. In thinkers—the philosophes—were influenced by the likes of
addition, Rousseau was influenced by Locke's natural law English scientist Isaac Newton and English philosopher John
account of human nature. According to Locke, human beings Locke, Rousseau found himself at one of the centers of
are naturally free and equal but are also governed by natural incredibly productive intellectual activity. The concept of
law. By this, he means those laws that applied to all people natural law, for example, from Greek philosopher Aristotle
regardless of their customs, conventional laws, location, and through Italian priest Thomas Aquinas, and from Dutch jurist
generation. Moreover, human beings have natural rights, Hugo Grotius through English philosopher Thomas Hobbes,
among which are life, liberty, and property. had become a core feature of political theories.

In Rousseau's state of nature, human beings are also free to Rousseau's novel contributions to political theory stand out
pursue their self-interest, uncoerced, and so uncorrupted by against the backdrop of these influences largely because he
civil society. Self-interest is dominated by self-preservation, broke from the prevailing enthusiasm for human reason.
which, in turn, is tenuous in the state of nature. Indeed, natural Instead, he concentrated on human nature and the

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The Social Contract Study Guide Author Biography 5

simultaneously aggravating and tempering influences of happiness. Through this study, he believed, one can properly
society. In addition, he did not side either with those who become virtuous.
endorsed a monarchy as a way of escaping the savagery of
the natural state or those who endorsed a civil society that As a movement, Romantic Naturalism emphasized the

exists in order to protect natural rights. On the former side immediacy of feeling and the concrete, albeit fleetingness, of

were thinkers such as Hobbes and Grotius, while on the latter nature. Such tangibility was contrasted with the arid

were the likes of Locke and French lawyer Montesquieu. While abstraction of rationality favored so heavily in the

he agreed with some ideas and rejected others, his view of the Enlightenment.

state aligns best with the ancient Greeks, particularly Aristotle.

For Aristotle, the political life is ultimately indistinguishable Immanuel Kant

from the good life. A citizen thrives because of the state and
through his contributions to it. Similarly, Rousseau holds that Perhaps Rousseau's most lasting mark on philosophy is in his

civic life is essential to a citizen's freedom. The general will effect on the groundbreaking German philosopher Immanuel

cannot be expressed without participating in public life. Kant (1724–1804). Kant is said to have become so absorbed in
Émile that he forgot to take the daily walks that were otherwise
so habitual that neighbors could set their clocks by them. In
Constitutions addition, Rousseau's portrait was the only image displayed in
Kant's home.
Both France and the United States developed social contracts,
or constitutions, after their revolutions. A constitution lays out In his "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?"

the principles of a society, such as how the government is (1784) Kant declares, "Sapere aude! Dare to know!" Given

structured and organized, which rights are observed as Kant's typically Enlightenment confidence in reason, it might

existing naturally, and which rights are considered granted by seem strange that he was so affected by Rousseau. But like

the establishment of the constitution. A constitution may also Rousseau, Kant understood reason's limits. In his Critique of

establish the practices of administering the government. Pure Reason (1781), for example, Kant argues that the
structure of human understanding limits knowledge to the
empirical world, thereby restricting reason.
Romantic Naturalism
Rousseau's commitment to freedom—more specifically,
The Enlightenment not only influenced Rousseau, Rousseau independence—likely influenced the framework of Kant's
also influenced it. He was, however, not exclusively an thinking on politics and morality. In other words, Kant's clarion
Enlightenment thinker. Insofar as he was deeply committed to call, "Sapere aude!" has more in common with Rousseau than
the value of the emotions, rather than the singular primacy of would seem to be the case at first glance. After all, Rousseau
reason, Rousseau did not fit neatly into the common was deeply concerned with preserving human independence in
conceptions of the Enlightenment philosopher. His novel Julie, the context of a civil society. Thinking for oneself is one such
or The New Heloise (1761) continuously set out the tensions point of contact.
between reason and emotion, the individual and societal
Still another is equality. Kant conceives of human beings as
norms, and the fundamental goodness of human nature and its
fundamentally of equal value. For Rousseau, the erosion of
corruption by society.
freedom is one way of generating inequality by dependence.
For Rousseau, nature and the human being's natural condition For Kant, conduct that interferes with another person's
are not to be dominated, broken, and tamed. Indeed, one's freedom to make their own choices undermines their
natural state is a state of true freedom and goodness. fundamental value. As Kant put it, it was Rousseau who taught
Rousseau returned to this theme again in his novel on him the value of humanity: "Rousseau set me right."
education, Émile (1762), and he himself eventually chose to live
a quietly solitary life studying nature. His later work, Reveries of
the Solitary Walker (1782), emphasize nature as a path to

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The Social Contract Study Guide Author Biography 6

the work, the king offered Rousseau a lifelong pension, which

a Author Biography he declined. Such decisions would become almost
commonplace, rooted as they were in Rousseau's political
views.

Early Years An essay entitled Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, which
won first prize in an essay contest in 1750, established
Born June 28, 1712, in Geneva, Switzerland, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's reputation. In it he argued that humans, who are
Rousseau became an immensely influential thinker in art, basically good by nature, are corrupted by the arts and
religion, and political philosophy. His mother, Suzanne Bernard, sciences. The basic thesis about human goodness became the
died shortly after his birth, leaving his father, Isaac Rousseau, foundation of his later political works.
to raise him. A watchmaker, Rousseau's father elevated his
social status through marriage but eventually had to escape During his time in Paris, Rousseau also became a friend of
Geneva when he became embroiled in a dispute. French philosopher Denis Diderot, whose Encyclopédie (1772)
he copublished with French mathematician and philosopher
Prior to his departure, Isaac Rousseau had instilled into the Jean Le Rond d'Alembert. These philosophers were at the
young Rousseau a love of Geneva, where he, as a citizen, had center of French intellectual life. United by the commitment to
voting rights. He also cultivated a love of reading, which, in turn, rationality, the French intellectuals wrote on an array of topics.
inspired intense romantic ideas about life. Rousseau contributed music articles, as well as an important
essay on political economy, which was published in 1755. The
Rousseau was left in Geneva with an uncle and later sent away
Encyclopédie became the repository of French Enlightenment
to school. At 13 he was apprenticed to a notary and then an
achievements.
engraver, the latter of whom beat him. Having run away at 15,
he eventually came under the protection of a noblewoman, the Rousseau's personal life continued to be complicated. He
Baroness of Warens. A convert to Catholicism, Warens was became involved with a seamstress, Thérèse Levasseur, and
instrumental in Rousseau's conversion, which resulted in his he had at least one child with her. He persuaded Levasseur to
relinquishing his Genevan citizenship. give the infant up to an orphanage. Eventually, he took her and
her mother in as servants, supporting them and the rest of
Rousseau's relationship with the baroness, who was separated
their family.
from her husband, was complicated. He lived with her at
various points, eventually becoming her lover when he turned
20. She often supported him financially and also provided for
his religious and music education. In addition, having
Period of Intense and Prolific
surrounded herself with the educated Catholic elite, she
introduced him to the world of ideas.
Writing
Eventually, Rousseau began studying in earnest—mathematics, Rousseau returned to Geneva in 1754, reconverted to
music, and philosophy, especially—and in his late 20s became Calvinism (branch of Protestantism), and regained his
a tutor in Lyon. After having developed a new system of citizenship. He also became embroiled in a controversy that
musical notation, Rousseau moved to Paris in 1742 to present it resulted in a falling out with Diderot and the Encyclopédistes.
to the Académie des Sciences. Though they rejected it as Rousseau's romantic spiritualism, for example, contrasted
impractical, the Académie acknowledged Rousseau's mastery starkly with Diderot's atheism. This did not, however, prove to
of the subject matter and encouraged him to continue working be an obstacle to a prodigious output: Discourse on the Origin
on it. of Inequality (1755); Discourse on Political Economy (published
in the fifth volume of the Encyclopédie, 1755); Letter to
During a brief posting as secretary to the French ambassador d'Alembert (1758); Julie, or The New Heloise (1761); Émile or On
to Venice, Rousseau developed a love of Italian opera. He Education or Émile (1762); The Social Contract (1762);
would later write a popular opera, The Village Soothsayer, Dictionary of Music (1768); Confessions (1782); Rousseau,
which was performed in 1752 for King Louis XV. Delighted with Judge of Jean-Jacques (1780); and Reveries of a Solitary

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The Social Contract Study Guide Key Figures 7

Walker (1782). nations can trace significant ideas to him. His Social Contract
was an inspiration to the Society of the Jacobins (radical
The novels Julie and Émile were, respectively, popular and French revolutionaries) and others during the French
infamous. The former influenced romanticism, and the latter, Revolution (1789–99; a period of social and political upheaval),
education. In Émile Rousseau included a defense of religious and his ideas were influential both in American politician
belief; because it rejected original sin and divine revelation, Thomas Jefferson's creation of the Declaration of
both Protestant and Catholic authorities took offense. His Independence (1776) and in the writing of the Federalist
books, and Rousseau himself, were banned in France and Papers (1788; a series of essays in support of the ratification of
Geneva. the U.S. Constitution).

With arrest warrants out, Rousseau fled. He received various

invitations, including one from French writer Voltaire, and
eventually, with protection from Frederick the Great of Prussia, h Key Figures
landed in a principality ruled by Frederick. There, however, he
was hounded by religious critics and eventually left. He spent a
brief time on a small island in Switzerland before he was
instructed to leave.
Aristotle
Arriving in Paris, Rousseau met the Scottish philosopher, David In contrast to Rousseau, Aristotle argued that human beings
Hume, with whom he would develop a short-lived friendship. He are not naturally equal. The two share the view, however, that a
also reconnected with various friends. Conspicuously absent, constitution establishes the common interest of the whole.
however, was Diderot. They were never reconciled, for reasons Indeed, for Aristotle, the individual does not flourish outside the
unknown. Similarly, Rousseau eventually had a falling-out with community, whose primary function is to promote and secure
Hume, who hosted him in Britain during a visit. flourishing. Like his teacher, Plato, Aristotle's political theory is
deeply connected to his ethical theory. For Aristotle, in fact,
ethics is preparatory to politics.

Last Days
Though there was still an arrest warrant out for him in France, Hugo Grotius
Rousseau returned there under an assumed name. He
continued writing, studied botany, and variously engaged his Hugo Grotius's work profoundly influenced philosophy, law,
many critics. On July 2, 1778, Rousseau died from a stroke. political theory, and relevant areas of study. His contributions
to natural law theory generally promote the view that certain
societal norms have their basis in nature. Thus, acceptable and

Legacy unacceptable behaviors are so by nature.

Rousseau never shied away from complexity. He celebrated

nature and solitude but also advocated civil life as essential. He Thomas Hobbes
criticized the corrupting power of the arts but also wrote
novels and operas. He insisted on the primacy of human Thomas Hobbes's political philosophy is derived from his view
freedom but also argued that such freedom is best supported that reality is exclusively material, which is to say, only material
by being forced into interactions with society. He was largely things exist. According to Hobbes, outside of a social contract,
uneducated but was still one of the most successful thinkers of human life is miserable. It is only by entering into a compact
his generation and beyond. He was averse to revolutions but that individuals have a chance of living well—or at least, more
was an inspiration to revolutionaries. safely than they are alone. Hobbes's view vests authority and
responsibility in an individual sovereign.
Rousseau's influence is not limited to individual thinkers.
Indeed, entire movements and founding documents of new

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The Social Contract Study Guide Key Figures 8

Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli is often called the father of modern
political philosophy. His seminal work, The Prince, offers advice
to would-be rulers. This advice focuses on what a would-be
prince should do to retain power.

Charles-Louis de Secondat,
baron de La Brède and de
Montesquieu
Montesquieu articulated a theory of the separation of
governmental powers. This view was influential on framers of
subsequent constitutions.

Plato
Along with Aristotle, Plato is one of the greatest philosophers.
Having written on virtually every subject, Plato's philosophy is
systematic. This means, in part, that his political theory is
intimately connected with his theories of reality (metaphysics)
and knowledge (epistemology). According to Plato, only a
republic ruled by philosopher kings and queens will be just.

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The Social Contract Study Guide Key Figures 9

Full Key Figure List Pierre Bayle (1647–1706) was a

French philosopher. His "Historical
and Critical Dictionary" was
Pierre Bayle condemned by both the French
Key Figure Description
Roman Catholic Church and the
French Reformed Church of
Aristotle (384–322 BCE) was a Rotterdam.
Greek philosopher whose systematic
works range from aesthetics to
Julius Caesar (c. 100–44 BCE) was a
Aristotle biology. His political philosophy
Roman general and statesman who
influenced subsequent political
Caesar (Julius) conquered Gaul. He was
theorists, such as Jean-​Jacques
assassinated before he could enact a
Rousseau.
series of social and political reforms.

Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) was a

Caligula (12 BCE–41 CE) was a
Dutch intellectual, statesman, and
Hugo Grotius Caligula Roman emperor best known for his
diplomat. He is considered the "father
extreme behaviors.
of international law."

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE)

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was an
Marcus Tullius was a Roman writer, scholar, law, and
English polymath, whose interests
Cicero statesman. His writings range from
Thomas Hobbes included philosophy, science, and
rhetoric to political treatises.
history. His masterwork is his political
treatise, Leviathan (1651).
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) was an
Oliver Cromwell English statesman and solider. He led
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was
forces during the English Civil wars.
Niccolò an Italian intellectual and statesman.
Machiavelli The Prince, his political treatise, is his
best known work. François de
François de Vendôme (1616–1669)
Vendôme, Duc
was a prominent French figure.
de Beaufort
Charles-​Louis
de Secondat, Montesquieu (1689–1755) was a
baron de La French intellectual who was best George I George I (1660–1727) was the first
Brède and de known for his political philosophy. (England) Hanoverian king of Great Britain.
Montesquieu

James II, the Duke of York

Plato (c. 428/427 to 348/347 BCE) James II (1633–1701) was the king of England,
was a Greek philosopher whose Scotland, and Ireland.
systematic works include his political
Plato treatises, The Republic, and Laws.
The Republic, in particular, has been Louis IX (1214–1270) was the king of
Louis IX
influential on subsequent political France.
theorists, including Rousseau.
Louis IX (1601–1643) was the king of
Louis XIII
In the first book of the Hebrew Bible, France.
Adam Genesis, Adam appears as the first
man. Lycurgus (390–c. 324 BCE) was an
Lycurgus Athenian statesman. He was also an
Jean Barbeyrac (1674–1744) was a orator.
Jean Barbeyrac
French jurist and translator.
Mahomet, or Muhammad (c. 570
Mahomet BCE–632 CE), was the prophet of
Islam.

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The Social Contract Study Guide Plot Summary 10

Gaius Marius (c. 157–86 BCE) was a Romulus Augustulus (5th century CE)
Gaius Marius
Roman general and politician. Romulus was the last Western Roman
emperor.

Karl Marx (1818–83) was a Prussian

socialist economist who wrote The Jean-​Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)
Karl Marx Jean-​Jacques
Communist Manifesto (1848) and was a Swiss-​born French philosopher
Rousseau
Capital (1867). and novelist.

Minos is the ruler of Crete in Greek Samuel, or Shmu'el, was a Hebrew

Minos mythology. He was said to be the son Samuel (Israel) prophet who flourished in the 11th
of the gods Zeus and Europa. century BCE.

Moloch, or Molech, was a Canaanite Saturn is the Roman god of seed. His
Moloch deity. In the Hebrew bible, he is Saturn Greek counterpart is Cronus, the god
associated with child sacrifice. of agriculture.

Moses, or Moshe, who lived c. 14th Servius Tullius (c. 578–535 BCE) is
Moses and 13th centuries BCE, was a credited with creating the Servian
Hebrew prophet. Servius Tullius Constitution. This constitution divided
members into five classes according
to wealth.
Noah is a biblical figure, known as the
Noah hero of the flood story in the Hebrew
bible. Solon (c. 630–560 BCE) was an
Solon
Athenian statesman.
Numa Pompilius (c. 700 BCE) was a
Numa Pompilius Roman ruler prior to the founding of The Venetian Council of Ten was a
the Roman Republic. political organization in the 14th
The Council of
century. It was established for the
Ten
purpose of defending the existing
Pompey the Great, or Gnaeus rule.
Pompeius Magnus (106 BCE–48 CE)
Pompey the was a statesman and general in the
Great later Roman Republic. He was also an Ulysses is the hero of Homer's epic
Ulysses
associate of Julius Caesar, whom he poem, The Odyssey.
later opposed.

William Warburton (1698–1779) was

William
Robinson Crusoe is the fictional an Anglican bishop. He was also an
Warburton
character in the novel of the same active literary critic.
name. Written by Daniel Defoe, the
full title of the novel is The Life and
Strange Surprizing Adventures of William of Orange, also known as
Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: William III (1650–1702), reigned jointly
Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, William of with Queen Mary II over England,
Robinson All Alone in an Un-​inhabited Island on Orange Scotland, and Ireland. He was also
Crusoe the Coast of America, Near the Mouth the Dutch official (stadtholder) of the
of the Great River of Oroonoque; United Provinces of the Netherlands.
Having Been Cast on Shore by
Shipwreck, Wherein All the Men
Perished but Himself. With an
Account how he was at last as
Strangely Deliver'd by Pyrates. k Plot Summary
Written by Himself.
The Social Contract is an extract from a larger—and never
completed—work, Political Institutions. Its systematic focus is
on the essential conditions of a legitimate state. The opening

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The Social Contract Study Guide Plot Summary 11

line of Chapter 1 distills the central problem Jean-Jacques

Rousseau sets out to solve: "Man is born free; and everywhere,
he is in chains." According to Rousseau, modern society has
circumscribed humans' natural freedom and equality, shackling
them in the chains of dependence.

No society is legitimate if it generates inequality and makes

people dependent on artificially created necessities, each
other, and a ruler. The only civil society that deserves its name
is one that expresses the general will. Rousseau calls a
collection of people who freely enter into society with each
other a Sovereign. Multiple individuals become one body, with
one voice. The aim of the Sovereign is to preserve and
promote the common good, which Rousseau takes to be
security, liberty, and equality.

The Sovereign expresses the general will, while an

independent lawgiver—a noncitizen—codifies that will into law.
A government is then organized to implement those laws.
Rousseau does not specify what form that government takes,
though he proposes the main options: democracy, aristocracy,
and monarchy. Each may be suitable to a given state,
depending on a variety of factors, and he points out some
benefits and flaws of each.

Because tensions between the Sovereign and the government

naturally arise, whereby the latter works against the general
will, Rousseau insists that the Sovereign must convene at
regular intervals to reassert its authority. At these assemblies
each citizen must vote for what they take to be the general will
rather than their own particular interests. They may be
incorrect about what that general will is and so vote against it,
but the majority wins. Ideally, there will be unanimity, as each
citizen tends to understand what is common to all.

A citizen's vote, Rousseau argues, cannot be farmed out to a

representative. Because the citizen is an essential part of the
Sovereign and because it is imperative that the Sovereign
express the general will, each citizen's vote keeps the state
alive.

Rousseau considers the role of religion in the state. After

reviewing ways in which religion and political life have
historically existed, he proposes a civil religion. It alone can
inspire citizens of the state to the sort of virtue found in civic
duty, which informs the general will.

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 12

their fathers in order to survive, though this dependence ends

c Chapter Summaries when they can fend for themselves. Concurrently, a father is
responsible for the child until that child becomes independent,
at which time the father, too, is freed. As Rousseau writes, at

Book 1, Chapters 1–6 this point "the natural bond is dissolved." If the family remains
intact, it is by choice, and so by convention.

Liberty is man's natural state. According to Rousseau, an

Summary individual's responsibility is only to self-preservation. It is up to
the individual, when able to care for themselves, to determine
the best means of doing so. In this way he "becomes his own
Book 1, Chapter 1: Subject of the First master."

Book The family provides "the first model of political societies." A

society's ruler is like the father, and the people that constitute
Before beginning Chapter 1, Jean-Jacques Rousseau tells his the rest of society are like the children. The bond between
reader that his project is to investigate whether or not, given them, that by which their liberty is restricted, is established
human beings as they are, a legitimate rule of law can be "only for their own advantage." Before that, they are each
established. The aim is to "unite what right sanctions with what entirely free, and all are equal. Political authority is not, then,
is prescribed by interest," because what is right and what is in derived from natural authority, such as found in families.
an individual's interest may not always coincide. Rousseau points out that, unlike the love a father has for his
dependent children, a ruler feels "the pleasure of commanding"
Rousseau goes on to announce his reason for writing a work
subjects. What is in the interests of the ruled may not be of
on politics. It is precisely because he is neither "a prince [nor] a
interest to the ruler, and the natural authority found in families
legislator." Were he one or the other, he could simply enact his
does not transfer over to a political authority.
ideas rather than propose them in a treatise. Finally, it is
because he is "a citizen of a free State," with a corresponding According to Rousseau, thinkers such as Grotius, Hobbes,
right to vote, he takes it as his "duty" to study "public affairs." Caligula, and Aristotle consider the relation between ruler and
ruled as natural (i.e., there are people whose natural condition
To begin Chapter 1, Rousseau declares, "Man is born free; and
is to be ruled by those superior to them) as a shepherd rules a
everywhere, he is in chains." The project in the first chapter is
flock because he is superior to them. Rousseau rejects this
to discern when the change from freedom to the imprisonment
position, arguing that it is force, not nature, that creates rulers
of social constraints occurred and what political authority can
and ruled, and it is only by cowardice that anyone remains a
legitimize it.
slave.
When people are "compelled to obey," regaining freedom by
force is justified. As Rousseau points out, those forced into
obedience are "justified in resuming [liberty], or there was no
Book 1, Chapter 3: The Right of the
justification for those who took it away." At the same time, Strongest
Rousseau claims, society is both "a sacred right" and the
foundation for all other rights. Rights are not derived, then, Rousseau continues his argument against both a conception of
from nature, but convention. Rousseau declares that an ruling and ruled as a natural condition, and, more generally,
argument for this claim is the topic of the following chapters. against society as a natural state of man. At the outset of
Chapter 3 he writes, "The strongest is never strong enough to
be always the master," unless he resorts to lies and tyranny.
Book 1, Chapter 2: The First Societies Rousseau rejects the justice of this transformation. The
"physical power" of force wielded by a ruler does not yield a
The family is the "most ancient of all societies" and the only
"moral effect" in those ruled. Yielding or succumbing to force is
society that is natural to humans. Children are dependent on
not an act of will and cannot, consequently, be a duty.

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 13

Assuming, on the other hand, that a right can be generated the one side, absolute authority, and, on the other, unlimited
through force, Rousseau concludes that "the sole result is an obedience." Another way to put the contradiction is as follows:
inexplicable mass of nonsense." This is because with each the master owns the slave and so also the slave's rights. The
force greater to the one previous to it, a new right is master, then, has a right against himself.
established. Now, suppose that one is strong enough to get
away with disobeying authority. This means that one is not Rousseau also rejects Grotius's argument that the right of

forced to obey. Rousseau argues that force obviates duty, so slavery can be derived from war. When one society vanquishes

when force is no longer a reason to obey, there is nothing else another, the "victor" supposedly has "the right of killing the

to compel one to do so. In other words, if people recognize and vanquished." The price of life is slavery. Because there is an

obey authority, then it is because they are forced to do so. In advantage to each, it is supposed, the arrangement is thought

that case, they do not obey because they believe they ought to to be legitimate. Rousseau argues that the inference from war

do so. But, when the moment comes that they are not forced to slavery is erroneous.

to obey, there is no other motivation to do so. Consequently,

War, Rousseau maintains, "is constituted by a relation between
claiming that force generates right results in the
things, and not between persons." That is, wars are waged
aforementioned "inexplicable mass of nonsense." Rousseau
between states over property and resources. As such, they are
concludes that "we are obliged to obey only legitimate
not about individuals. When wars end, enemies revert to being
powers."
human beings, with all that Rousseau believes that entails.
Consequently, it does not serve as an analogue to individuals
submitting themselves to a form of slavery.
Book 1, Chapter 4: Slavery
Moreover, the exchange of slavery for life, Rousseau argues, is
Because human beings are naturally equal, and because force
based on an erroneous right. A victor is not entitled to the lives
cannot establish a right, Rousseau concludes, "conventions
of the vanquished. Indeed, "there is a vicious circle in" inferring
form the basis of all legitimate authority among men." Giving up
a right to enslave from a right to kill or let live, and conversely
one's natural freedom to be ruled requires something in
in inferring a right to kill of let live from a right to enslave. The
exchange. Hugo Grotius proposes that the individual's ability to
words, "slave" and "right" are themselves contradictory,
"alienate his liberty and make himself the slave of a master"
Rousseau objects, insofar as the one who enslaves enters into
can be expanded to "a whole people," who could become
an arrangement that is entirely to their advantage.
subjects of a king. Rousseau asserts that there must be
something subjects receive for relinquishing or effectively
selling their liberty. Yet, while a king lives off the products of his Book 1, Chapter 5: That We Must Always
subjects' labor, the people gain nothing in return. The claim
that they gain security is undermined, Rousseau argues, by the Go Back to a First Convention
fact that the king can send his people to war.
Rousseau continues his argument against the general concept
No sane person would turn over his freedom without gaining of the rule of might, be it by force, entering into slavery, or the
anything in return. Such an agreement would be void, given spoils of war—in short, against despotism. Even if the
"the mere fact that he who does it is out of his mind." Giving up arguments of the previous chapters are not convincing,
one's freedom for nothing is not only not a legitimate covenant, Rousseau maintains, despotic rule does not reflect a society
or contract, but it also does not extend to one's children, who but merely a situation in which there is a master and slaves.
are born free; "their liberty belongs to them, and no one but
they has the right to dispose of it." Moreover, Rousseau argues, an important point about the
relation between ruler and ruled is missing on standard
Indeed, no contract in which one gives up one's freedom is accounts of the generation of political authority. For example,
legitimate. "To renounce liberty," Rousseau writes, "is to even on Grotius's view that a political authority is established
renounce being a man." The moment one's freedom has been when people give themselves over to a king, there is still the
relinquished, one is no longer in a position to demand anything. assumption that a society exists to be ruled. In other words, "a
This, Rousseau argues, is a simple contradiction, fostering "on people is a people before it gives itself." Already, then, society

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 14

has been formed out of the natural state of individuals freely terminology to denote features of the contractual society:
and independently pursuing their own interests. members call their society "State, when passive, Sovereign
when active, and Power when compared with others like itself."
What is required of an investigation into the formation of a Members of the society are, collectively, people, and as
society is how individuals initially collected in order to give individuals in that collective are citizens. Citizens share "in
themselves over to a king. As Rousseau points out, a sovereign power," while as subjects they fall "under the laws of
"convention" must already be established if some people in a the State."
society want a master, while others do not. "The law of majority
voting is itself something established by convention."
Analysis
Book 1, Chapter 6: The Social Compact Rousseau's central aim is to reconcile human nature with civil
society. According to Rousseau, because that nature is not
The origin of society, and a contract which binds members
inclined to society, and because it is corrupted by it, the
together, is the subject of Chapter 6. Rousseau has already
challenge is to convince people to want what is right.
proposed the view that the natural state of individuals is
According to Rousseau, there is a need for a social contract,
freedom and independence. In that condition an individual's
but not just any contract will suffice. A legitimate social
sole responsibility is self-preservation. A point is reached,
contract is one that voices the general for the common good.
however, at which the challenges to maintaining that state are
too great: "The human race would perish unless it changed its Rousseau begins the formal body of The Social Contract with
manner of existence." Individuals must band together in order what is now one of the most famous lines in philosophical
to survive. The key, Rousseau maintains, is for individuals to literature: "Man is born free; and everywhere, he is in chains."
unite without losing "the force and liberty" that "are the chief The quote distills the central concept in Rousseau's political
instruments of [that individual's] self-preservation." More philosophy. The foundations of a civil society are illegitimate
specifically, Rousseau declares that such a union of individuals when they restrict freedom and, typically as a result, generate
must preserve the individual's self-mastery and freedom. inequality. One who is wealthier than their neighbors, for
example, has more power. Rousseau, like Plato, rejects the
The book, Rousseau claims, is the solution to the problem of
argument that might—in whatever form that takes—makes
maintaining the individual freedom from obedience to others.
right.
The essential terms of the contract Rousseau presents are as
follows: all citizens subordinate their individual wills to the Instead, Rousseau situates morality squarely in the realm of
general will; in turn, they become an indivisible whole. freedom. When he claims that yielding to force is not an act of
will, and so cannot be a duty, Rousseau clearly expresses the
It is imperative that the individual completely and
view that a coercive political authority is not morally binding.
unconditionally join in the whole, for without doing so, there
This point helps clarify Rousseau's previous claim, in Chapter 1,
can be no "general will." From this, it follows that the individual
that anyone compelled to obey is justified in shirking off the
does not maintain rights that oppose the formal whole, or
yoke by force.
state. At the same time, however, because those entering into
the contract are equals, their natural freedom is preserved. Because Rousseau uses terminology unfamiliar to the
Moreover, because individuals who enter into the contract wish contemporary reader, or uses it in unfamiliar ways, it is
to preserve their freedom, the contract must not be worthwhile to clarify it. The general will, which is named the
burdensome and complicated. Through this manner of Republic or body politic, is significant. Once individuals enter
association, Rousseau asserts, "a moral and collective body" is into a social compact or contract, the resulting body is an
created, a "public person," in which each individual's vote entity with its own will. The collection of people who enter into
counting as equally as another member's. That "moral and a civil society becomes one; hence, the term Sovereign.
collective body," or "public person," is called a Republic or body
politic.

Rousseau concludes the chapter by introducing further

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 15

In order for the social contract Rousseau proposes to be more

Book 1, Chapters 7–9 than "an empty formula," it must include the condition that the
whole body compel anyone who "refuses to obey the general
will"—which is to say, anyone who does not obey the state "will
Summary be forced to be free." According to Rousseau, this condition
"alone legitimizes civil undertakings, which, without it, would be
absurd, tyrannical, and liable to the most frightful abuses."
Book 1, Chapter 7: The Sovereign
In the "mutual undertaking" of contracting, the members of a Book 1, Chapter 8: The Civil State
Sovereign serve in two different capacities. One binds them to
individuals, while the other binds them to the Sovereign. The Rousseau moves on in Chapter 8 to consider the effects on
Sovereign itself only has one capacity. In action (that is, as a the individual of entering into a social contract. Justice and
legislative body engaged in the creation of laws), the Sovereign morality substitute for instinctive actions. The voice of duty is
is not a subject. As such, it is not beholden to its own substituted for "physical impulses and right of appetite." In this
legislation. The practical reason for this is that legislation way, the individual is forced to rationally consider actions and
needs to adapt to changing conditions. Conceptually, Jean- act on principles different from pure self-preservation and
Jacques Rousseau asserts that it is self-contradictory to hold inclination. The freedom lost in existing nature is more than
that the Sovereign is bound to itself, such that it would be made up for in what is gained in a civil society. Among the
bound to its own authority. benefits are the stimulation and development of one's faculties
and the cultivation and ennobling of one's feelings. In short,
The Sovereign is, however, bound not to violate the contract, one moves from being "a stupid and unimaginative animal" to
because that agreement makes possible its very existence. "an intelligent being and a man." Reason and the general will,
Related to this prohibition is another one against doing having replaced instinct and freedom, guide subjects in the
anything against that agreement: "for instance, to alienate any direction of improvement.
part of itself, or to submit to another Sovereign."

The Sovereign, as a unified body, cannot "offend against one Book 1, Chapter 9: Real Property
of the members without attacking the body," so that it is the
state's—or Sovereign's—interest not to harm one of its When an individual "gives himself to" a civil state, he also gives
members but instead to act in favor of their interests, despite "all the resources at his command, including the goods he
not being bound to do so. In addition, any offense against the possesses." This does not, however, entail relinquishing one's
body itself creates resentment among its members. "Duty and property. For insofar as the individual is also a subject of the
interest" emerge to secure the subjects' relations to each other state, the state has an interest in protecting what has been
and the Sovereign, as well as the Sovereign's relation to its acquired in the state of nature.
subjects. The dual capacity of a Sovereign's members makes
this reciprocity possible. Legitimate, or "real" property rights are secured by being "the
first occupier." One could have acquired one's property by
The body comprises individuals and consequently has no force, but Rousseau has already discounted it as a legitimate
"interest contrary to theirs." Moreover, "because it is method. Instead, because everyone has a right to what they
impossible for the body to wish to hurt all its members," there need to survive, and given that one works and cultivates
is no reason for that body to provide its subjects with property not already occupied—rather than taken "by an empty
guarantees. On the other hand, subjects require laws to ceremony"—and not greater than what is necessary for
maintain their loyalty to the Sovereign. After all, Rousseau survival, it follows that one has a right to property.
points out, some members "may wish to enjoy the rights of
citizenship without [fulfilling] the duties of a subject." A
continued state "of this injustice [would be] the undoing of the
body politic."

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 16

Analysis Book 2, Chapters 1–6

The Sovereign meets individuals where and how they are. In
other words, Jean-Jacques Rousseau is not interested in
creating a political structure out of whole cloth. Instead, he
Summary
takes an empirical approach. So, while he offers a theoretical
conception of the natural condition of the human being, he
does not theorize about the myriad conditions in which people
Book 2, Chapter 1: That Sovereignty Is
find themselves. So, for example, he does not assume that Inalienable
people live in the same geographical conditions—some live in
coastal areas, others inland. The point of the social contract is the common good.
Consequently, "the general will alone can direct the State
Rousseau is also interested in discussing the benefits of according to the object for which it was instituted."
society. The reader does well to remember that Rousseau's Sovereignty, Rousseau declares, is "nothing less than the
criticism of modern life, so forcefully articulated in the opening exercise of the general will." The "collective being" known as
line of the book, is a criticism of historical and current political the Sovereign—the passive condition of the term—asserts its
structures, which include property ownership and other will through the actions of its members. The people as a whole,
inequities. His remedy, founded on the belief in human beings' not a subdivision, for example, express the general will. That
natural moral equality and goodness, and natural freedom, is to will, in turn, is expressed in law, which is the result of the
channel, not to transform. This is partly why he eschews Sovereign's activities. How that law is applied is the expression
dictating certain features of the political structure, such as the of a particular will. Thus, the particular will "tends, by its very
type of government a state should adopt (i.e., democracy, nature, to partiality, while the general will tends to equality."
aristocracy, or monarchy). The individual, or particular will, privileges a part of society,
while the general will privileges the whole.
What Rousseau is adamant about is the fundamental
constitution of the body politic, the Sovereign. For people to The particular and general wills do not always coincide; they
agree to enter into a social contract, they must believe there is can (however rare that alignment is). Consequently, Rousseau
a common good that outweighs a continued solitary existence. maintains that their coincidence cannot be guaranteed.
Moreover, they must believe that harm to one is harm to all; Consequently, only obedience to the general will is possible;
that harm to the state is harm to all. If they do not share this one cannot obey this or that authority, because it is nothing
belief, they will not grasp the significance of Rousseau's claim other than a particular will. The moment a citizen hands over
that, entering the social contract, one is "forced to be free," as their liberty to an authority, the Sovereign is dead.
he points out in Chapter 4.

Taking responsibility for action makes us better, which is one

Book 2, Chapter 2: That Sovereignty Is
benefit of the civil state. The practically absolute freedom in
nature, which amounts to the freedom from coercion by others, Indivisible
is attended by a lack of responsibility toward others. By
entering into a social contract, one takes others' interests into Sovereignty is, in addition to being inalienable, is also
account, which eventually leads to the general will concerned indivisible. Its indivisibility derives from two sources: first, the
with promoting the common good. As Rousseau points out in entire body of citizens that generates the general will, which
Chapter 8, everything a person loses by the social contract he requires that "all votes be counted," without formally excluding
gains in guaranteed liberties. anyone. Second, Sovereignty cannot be divided into types of
power, branches of government, and so forth. There are
"emanations from it." In other words, the Sovereign's powers
are not equivalent to the powers derived from it. Consequently,
the Sovereign's powers cannot be divided. This is just what
thinkers such as Hugo Grotius propose, however, when

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 17

investing power in a ruler. life. The state cannot, for example, take more from a citizen
than is required. In addition, the state speaks for the citizen to
Rousseau provides an example of the difference between the extent that it is relevant to society as a whole; that is, in
Sovereignty and the powers derived from it. Declarations of terms of what is relevant to the common good. Otherwise, the
war and peace, he maintains, are not exercises of sovereignty citizen pursues their own interests.
but the application of law generated by it. The law provides
instruction for the appropriate declarations and authorization
of the power to make them, but these are not themselves law. Book 2, Chapter 5: The Right of Life and
Death
Book 2, Chapter 3: Whether the General
The Sovereign's right extends to life and death. In other words,
Will Is Fallible the state has the authority to implement the death penalty in
order to preserve the social contract. One violates the social
Rousseau argues that the general will is infallible. Rousseau contract when one violates sovereign laws. Consequently, "he
reminds the reader of a previous claim, namely that the general must be removed by exile as a violator of the compact, or by
will tends toward the common good. It does not follow from death as a public enemy." That individual is an enemy because,
this, however, "that the deliberations of the people are always according to Rousseau, "such an enemy is not a moral person,
equally correct." People can be deceived or may fail to but merely a man." Recalling the right of war, Rousseau
correctly identify the good. The general will cannot. Moreover, concludes the vanquished enemy is to be killed.
the general will is distinguished from the "will of all," which
considers "private interest," while the general will does not.
Consequently, the "will of all" is simply the "sum of particular Book 2, Chapter 6: Law
wills."
Having articulated the origin of the social contract, Rousseau
The general will accounts for everyone—no one is formally turns his attention to how the body politic, or the Sovereign, is
prevented from a vote. Consequently, Rousseau thinks, when maintained. The social contract brings the "body politic" to life;
informed citizens deliberate on what to do, without influencing laws, Rousseau maintains, "give it movement and will."
each other in any way, the general will will emerge. Citizens
may differ in terms of their particular wills, but, because these Laws are required to protect members of society from those
"private wills" clash, it is easy to see they do not represent the who would do others harm. According to Rousseau, "the object
general will—an individual's private interests are not likely of laws is always general": laws consider subjects as a whole
identical with everyone else's. When factions form, however, and their actions as "abstract, never a particular person or
the distinction between the private and general wills is harder action." Moreover, "the law unites universality of will with
to discern. These are precluded, and public discourse universality of object." Consequently, laws aim at the common
protected from corruption, Rousseau thinks, by preventing good.
citizens from communicating during deliberation on proposed
public policies. Thinking for oneself is the order of the day.
Analysis
Book 2, Chapter 5: The Limits of "Sovereignty" and "the general will" can be taken as
synonymous terms. Indeed, people are sovereign—in their
Sovereign Power
collective voice is vested authority—when they speak with one
voice; that is, when they express the general will.
Rousseau continues the metaphor of the Sovereign as a body
in Chapter 4. The state is, more specifically, "a moral person
The general will is infallible. Jean-Jacques Rousseau has
whose life is in the union of its members." This arrangement
already claimed that by the mere fact it exists, the Sovereign is
does not eliminate the individual, insofar as the state's absolute
always everything it ought to be. Particular wills can and do
authority over him does not extend to every particular of his
conflict with the general will; that is, individuals are inclined to

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 18

pursue their self-interests rather than those common to all. political purpose.
These common interests include safety, clean water, and food.
For Rousseau common interests are reflective of equality,
while individual interests are reflective of partiality. Book 2, Chapter 8: The People
Consequently, when one goes against the common interest,
one goes against equality, for one does not take everyone else Rousseau has argued that people need to be convinced to

into account. When one realizes the superiority of the general obey laws. In Chapter 8 he focuses on the condition in which

will over the particular will, one realizes that in the general will, the people must be in, in order to be so convinced. Just as an

one's own most important interests are respected. Error architect must assess the conditions of the site on which a

occurs, then, when one exerts one's will contrary to the structure is to be built, so also a legislator must ascertain "the

general will. fitness of the people." Rousseau believes there is a period of

youth for nations, just as for people, "before which they should
not be made subject to laws." He concedes, however, that "the

Book 2, Chapters 7–12 maturity of a people is not always easily recognizable."

Societies that are not developed sufficiently cannot follow
laws, despite their goodness.

Summary
Book 2, Chapter 9: The People,
Book 2, Chapter 7: The Legislator Continued
Ideally, people are mature enough to embrace law. In addition,
Legislators create laws, beginning with a constitution.
ideally there will not be too many people in a social contract.
However, good legislators are not easily found. This is because
For government to be effective, society cannot be too large.
they must be very intelligent and insightful, and able to codify
For a society to be secure, it cannot be too small.
the general will. In so doing, they shape the character of the
state, turning brutes into men. Moreover, legislators must not
Smaller states are preferable to larger ones, because the latter
be citizens of the state for which they write laws. So, while as
can be cumbersome and inflexible. As Rousseau points out,
such they are exempt from the Sovereign, they are also unable
"Long distances make administration more difficult, just as a
to participate in governing.
weight becomes heavier at the end of a longer lever."
Moreover, larger, far-flung societies dilute the feelings citizens
Finding suitable legislators is not the only hurdle to be
have for each other and for their leader. Given that the general
overcome. The legislator is confronted with a collection of
will relies on both, such a situation is untenable.
individuals with no understanding of the principles that underlie
laws. Those individuals also must be transformed into
"substituting a partial and moral existence for the independent
Book 2, Chapter 10: The People,
and physical existence nature has conferred."
Continued
Obedience to the law is not a given. Rousseau points out that
the necessity of law as proof of this claim. As he writes, if it Rousseau's final chapter on "the People" focuses on the size of
were a given, "men would have to be before law what they the state and the type of person best suited to it. The state's
should become by means of law." Reason and force do not laws ought to ensure self-sufficiency, because without self-
serve as authorities, so another must suffice. According to sufficiency, dependency on other states and military
Rousseau, the legislator "must have recourse to an authority ... aggression become modes of survival. At the same time, a
capable of constraining without violence and persuading state that is overly productive is subject to aggression from
without convincing." Historically, divine authority has served those states wanting its resources.
this purpose. This does not mean, however, that religion and
politics share a common purpose. Instead, religion serves a There is no precise algorithm by which this balance can be
achieved. Rousseau points out that multiple factors must be

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 19

taken into account when thinking about the appropriate size state.
and development of the state. These include the territory's
geography, the variety of its natural resources, and the
willingness of its people to contribute to its welfare. Book 2, Chapter 12: The Division of the
Rousseau concludes the chapter with a list of characteristics
Laws
of the people "fit" for legislation. This list also encapsulates the
The final chapter in Book 2 is concerned with the classification
most significant features of what Rousseau takes to be the
of the laws of the state, each of which focuses on a relation
most successful type of state.
between institutions, between individuals and institutions, and
They are a people: among members of the society. The constitutional laws are
"political laws." These concern the relation between the
unified in some way but not already bound by law Sovereign and the state by setting out the rights and duties the
not superstitious or who have an ingrained culture Sovereign determines for the state. If they are wise, these laws
not in danger of being invaded, or having allies to come to are also called "fundamental laws."
its defense
immune to neighbors' disputes The second and third classifications concern laws that govern
whose members all know each other citizens' relations to each other. Civil and criminal laws,
capable of individual self-sufficiency respectively, maintain citizens' independence from each other,
not poor or wealthy but self-sufficient while preserving their dependence on the state. The fourth
possessing "the consistency of an ancient people classification is not codified law, as are the others, but instead
[combined] with the docility of a new one." law imprinted "on the hearts of the citizens." Moral law is,
according to Rousseau, "the most important of all," because,
more than any written law, it is what preserves a society.
Book 2, Chapter 11: The Various Though "a power unknown to political thinkers, [it is one] none
the less [on which] success in everything else depends." In
Systems of Legislation "secret," the legislator crafts laws that aim at generating
citizens who will the general good.
Rousseau next sets out to discuss the purpose of law and how
the state is to fulfill that purpose. To achieve "the greatest
good of all," which is the ultimate purpose of the state, laws
must promote and protect "liberty and equality." Each is
Analysis
essential, but equality is necessary for liberty.
Freedom is foundational to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's project.
Liberty here is "civil liberty," the independence of members in a Indeed, the entire book is organized around it. As Rousseau
society to pursue their own interests. Equality is, Rousseau points out at the beginning of Chapter 11, the legislation has
claims, not identical power or riches, for example, but the two main goals: "liberty, because all particular dependence
prevention of any one person having so great a power or means so much force taken from the body of the State" and
wealth over any other or others such that the latter's liberty is equality, which Rousseau claims is essential to liberty. The key
threatened or eliminated. More specifically, when one is to a successful civil society, then, is to understand and relate
dependent on another whose power or wealth effectively freedom in its various aspects: natural, civil, and moral. Any
creates that dependence, one loses one's liberty. This, in turn, encroachment on freedom weakens the state by creating
results in a weakening of the state. dependence.

Preserving liberty and equality, given the variables described in Rousseau has already argued that citizens who will uphold the
Chapter 10, means there is no exact formula. Each state is general good are going to hold the society together. Through
modified according to its own peculiarities, or "in accordance the society's mores, customs, and education, this goodwill is
with the local situation and the temper of the inhabitants"; all developed. So, while every society contains members who
these should determine the systems best for that particular have more or less than others (for example property) with the
cultivation of thinking about the common good, such inequality

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 20

does not become immoral. In other words, Rousseau

Book 3, Chapter 2: The Constituent
essentially associates morality with liberty, or freedom and
equality. Equality might be construed as "equity." For example, Principle in the Various Forms of
not everyone is of equal height or weight or baseline health.
Government
Not everyone has equal talents and aptitudes. In short,
sameness does not obtain. To the extent that there is a
Just as he distinguished, in principle, between the state and
common good, however, one willed by all people, there is
the Sovereign, Rousseau here distinguishes "between
impartiality or fairness.
government and its principle." There is proportionality between
the number of subjects and Sovereign, but because "the total
force of the government" is "invariable," greater numbers of
Book 3, Chapters 1–6 magistrates weakens it. Rousseau explains how this works in
terms of the "will." The magistrate represents, essentially, three
different wills. There is the private will of the individual. This will
Summary tends exclusively to its own advantage. There is also the
magistrates' common will. This will, which Rousseau also calls
the "corporate will," is connected with that which is
Book 3, Chapter 1: The Government in advantageous to the "prince"—the person or body that controls
the state day to day. Lastly, there is "the will of the people or
General the sovereign will," which Rousseau thinks is the most general
will of the state as a whole, and the government, which is part
Jean-Jacques Rousseau begins Book 3 with a comparison
of the whole.
between an individual and the state. Free action in the
individual, Rousseau explains, involves a moral and a physical According to Rousseau, a "perfect act of legislation" involves
component. The moral component consists in "the will which the subordination of these wills. More specifically, the individual
determines the act;" the physical component consists in "the will should be negligible, because the point of legislation is to
power which executes" what the will has determined to do. guarantee the good of all, and the individual will does not share
Similarly, "the body politic has the same motive powers." interests with any others. It is, then, subordinate to "the
corporate will," which consists of
Rousseau reviews the relevant idea from previous chapters:
individuals—magistrates—with shared interests. The corporate
the people have "the legislative power" that embodies the
will, in turn, is subordinate to the sovereign or general will,
general will. In this chapter Rousseau presents the executive
which reflects the common interests of the citizenry.
branch as the government or "supreme administration"; it
carries out the general will. He defines government as "an Magistrates can be influenced by either of the two subordinate
intermediate body set up between the subjects and the wills, the individual one of which is naturally the strongest. Each
Sovereign, to secure their mutual correspondence." Its mission person wants legislation favorable to their individual interests.
is to execute laws and maintain civil and political liberty. This Secondarily, factions that constitute a corporate will are
body consists of magistrates, kings, or governors. The interested in laws that serve their institutional interests.
governmental body as a whole, Rousseau calls prince. It is this
individual "entrusted with" administering the government. A related topic is the efficiency of the government. A small one
is more flexible and nimbler; a single ruler, for example, is most
The government holds "the intermediate forces" that bind the efficient, for "promptitude in execution diminishes as more
Sovereign with the state, or the people to themselves as the people are put in charge of it." Efficiency is not, however,
state. It effectively carries out the general will, and as such identical with "rectitude."
holds the subjects, the people, to their own will. Hence,
government is "the legitimate exercise of executive power."

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 21

of manners" in order not to become bogged down in the

Book 3, Chapter 3: The Division of
complexities of multiple interests. Third, a democracy cannot
Governments allow inequality, specifically in terms "of rank and fortune."
Fourth, and last, a democracy must eschew luxury, because "it
In Chapter 2 Rousseau distinguished the "kinds or forms of corrupts at once rich and poor, the rich by possession and the
government" by the number of their members. In this chapter poor by covetousness." In short, luxury is contrary to morality.
he sets out "to discover how the division is made." He lists
three possible divisions: the government or executive branch
can be democratic, by the whole or majority of the people; it Book 3, Chapter 5: Aristocracy
can be aristocratic, by a restriction of "the government to the
hands of a small number"; or it can be a monarchy, in which An aristocracy, or rule of the few, Rousseau explains, is the
power is concentrated in a single individual. Rousseau points best form of government. Sovereignty is vested in the people,
out that no one form is best but that the context determines but given the practicalities of running a government, an
which one is most suited to the situation. aristocracy is the most efficient. It is, he asserts, the oldest.
Traceable to the first civilizations, aristocracy is akin to familial
societies, where a father rules over his children, guided by his
Book 3, Chapter 4: Democracy natural love for them. This initial situation changes, Rousseau
maintains, as the society grows. Elective rule eventually
Having laid out the three commonest forms of government, consolidates into the hands of the wealthy and powerful, who
Rousseau spends the next three chapters discussing each. then transfer it by heredity. Hereditary aristocracy, Rousseau
The first, democracy, like the others, has strengths and thinks, is "the worst of all governments."
weaknesses. A democratic government is not the same as the
general will. Rousseau has already pointed out that According to Rousseau, natural aristocracy, elected
sovereignty, or the general will, makes law, and the executive aristocracy, and hereditary aristocracy each provide particular
branch, or government, carries it out. benefits and share some common characteristics. For
example, an aristocratic government is easily convened, and
Rousseau notes three problems with a democratic form of discussion is both more orderly and effective and thereby
government. First, there is no separation of powers between efficient. Rousseau also asserts that an aristocratic
the Sovereign (legislative branch) and the government government is respected more by other states than the
(executive branch). Consequently, there is no mechanism alternative forms of government. A small society, however, is
whereby citizens are accountable to the general will. Second, a essential to maintaining it.
lack of separation also undermines the aforementioned priority
of the general over the particular will. "Nothing," Rousseau Of the three forms of aristocracy, Rousseau favors elected
writes, "is more dangerous that the influence of private government. He points out, however, that the election of
interests on public affairs," which are corrupted by it. Third, magistrates is legitimate when the criteria for choosing them
there is a practical problem: administration of the government do not include wealth and power but instead their morals,
is intractable with many people involved. "enlightenment," and "experience." Moreover, while an
aristocracy should be larger than a democracy, it should not be
Nevertheless, Rousseau does recommend this form of large enough for magistrates to exert their individual wills. An
government under certain conditions. First, the state must be aristocracy can also sustain more inequality than can a
small. He has already pointed out the importance of a democracy, but there should still be "moderation on the side of
manageable size, as it facilitates citizens knowing every other the rich and contentment on that of the poor." Such inequality,
citizen, thereby increasing the propensity of promoting the Rousseau maintains, facilitates the magistrates' work on behalf
general will. People are likely to be more considerate and more of its citizens.
concerned about each other when these others are known. In
addition, a small state is more likely to cultivate virtue than a
large one.

Second, a democratic government should maintain a "simplicity

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 22

Rousseau takes seriously the tension between the government

Book 3, Chapter 6: Monarchy
and the Sovereign. The former will always be ready to impede
A monarchy is, according to Rousseau, the least desirable form upon the latter, so it is imperative that the citizens remain
of governments. A monarchy is a form of government in which vigilant. The general will cannot be maintained if a particular
there is a single head. Its single asset is its efficiency, because will, or faction of wills (corporate wills), dominates.
"all the springs of the machine are in the same hands" and are
For this reason Rousseau favors an aristocracy over a
oriented toward the same end.
democracy or a monarchy. Both a direct democracy
It is, however, a form of government with three significant (Rousseau disdains representative democracy as heralding the
flaws: One is that it relies on the oppression of a weak people death of the Sovereign) and a monarchy eliminate the
"unable to resist" the monarch who seeks absolute power. The distinction between the legislative and executive branches (i.e.,
second is that monarchs are typically "merely petty blunderers, collapses the Sovereign and the government into one). The
petty swindlers, and petty intriguers"; as such, they are "inept." first is impractical—too many voices or cooks in the kitchen
The third is that a monarchy is naturally unstable. A monarchy means nothing gets done. The second precludes the possibility
is maintained through succession; when one king dies, there of a general will.
may be a gap in time before another ruler is elected. During
that time, Rousseau contends, "intrigue and corruption"
dominate the citizenry, leading to instability. Book 3, Chapters 7–11

Analysis Summary
In Books 1 and 2 Rousseau is concerned with articulating the
basic principles whereby liberty and equality are preserved in a Book 3, Chapter 7: Mixed Governments
civil society. Sovereignty and law together maintain both, which
exist and function universally, rather than at the level of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's discussion of a monarchical form of
particularity. Consequently, they serve everyone and no one in government is followed by a caveat in Chapter 7: A king always
particular. has a number of subordinates to carry out a variety of tasks.
There is, in other words, "no such thing as a simple
In Book 3 Rousseau turns his attention from the founding of
Government." That said, a simple government, by virtue of its
the state to its governance. The government is distinct from
simplicity, is best, although the best government, as with any
the Sovereign, which is constituted by the citizens. It is the
form of government, depends on the empirical conditions.
government's role to enforce the general will, which is
associated with right. In other words, it is the government's role Rousseau spends the remainder of the chapter discussing two
to implement the laws created to protect the common good. opposite problems for any state: too much strength and too
"The members of [the government] are called magistrates or little strength. A government that is too strong interferes with
kings, that is to say governors;" the name prince belongs to the the general will. In this case, the executive branch's power is
whole governmental body. (The term is adopted from Niccolò not sufficiently dependent on the legislative branch. By
Machiavelli and refers simply to those who govern.) distributing authority across multiple magistrates, the problem
is ameliorated. The opposite problem, a government that is too
Rousseau is interested in advising readers on various political
weak, results in anarchy. To avoid this, Rousseau proposes the
institutions: democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. He is also
establishment of special courts "to concentrate" strength in
interested in offering advice on tempering governmental
terms of enforcing order.
intrusion into Sovereignty. Though he is convinced that no
state lasts forever—one need only look to the Roman Republic,
for example—he does think there are strategies for maintaining
a healthy state for as long as possible.

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 23

government occurs when the state itself dissolves.

Book 3, Chapter 8: That All Forms of
Government Do Not Suit All Countries The state can dissolve, according to Rousseau, in two ways.
One is when, in a monarchy, "the prince ceases to administer
In Chapter 8 Rousseau returns to the topic of liberty. As with the State in accordance with the laws," thereby usurping
his discussions of the organization of the state and its sovereign power. Another state is formed as a result, where a
government, Rousseau acknowledges that conditions influence "master and tyrant" rules the people. Here, a monarchy
a society's liberty. Citing Montesquieu, Rousseau claims liberty degenerates into a tyranny.
is not "a fruit of all climates."
The same situation can occur when several members of the
More specifically, land "where the surplus of product over labor government usurp the laws. Here, the aristocracy degenerates
is only middling [is] suitable for free peoples." This is because into an oligarchy, whereas a democracy degenerates into mob
fertile soil not only produces luxury, which erodes virtue, but rule ("ochlocracy"). Common to each is the usurpation of
also, by producing more food than needed, tempts a monarch Sovereignty, whereby the people's legislative power is stolen.
to confiscate it. Consequently, a resource-rich territory is more
suitable to a monarchy than another form of government.
"Unfriendly and barren lands," on the other hand, should be Book 3, Chapter 11: The Death of the
populated by "savages." That is because civilization is Body Politic
impossible among this class of people.
Looking back to fallen Greek states, Rousseau declares death
as "the natural and inevitable tendency of the best constituted
Book 3, Chapter 9: The Marks of a Good governments." Likening the political to the individual body,
Government Rousseau asserts that "the body politic ... begins to die as soon
as it is born, and carries in itself the causes of its destruction."
While Rousseau maintains there is no such thing as "the best
Continuing the analogy, Rousseau writes that the "life
government," there are myriad workable arrangements. He
principle" of the body politic is found in the authority of the
does think there is such a thing as a good government. People
sovereign's "legislative power." This, he maintains, is the state's
disagree on what constitutes such, because "moral qualities do
heart, while the executive branch, as the brain, "causes the
not admit of exact measurement." Nevertheless, the point of
movement of all the parts." Like in a human body, the brain may
society is "the preservation and prosperity of its members."
cease to function normally, but the rest of the body can live on.
Consequently, "the government under which without external
If the heart stops beating, however, "the animal is dead."
aids ... the citizens increase and multiply most, is beyond
question the best." The maintenance and growth of the The state, Rousseau reminds his reader, is not sustained by
population is key to all of society's other goods. laws but by legislation. Laws change, depending on the general
will, but "legislative power" is not. Old laws that persist do so
because the people, the legislative body, the Sovereign,
Book 3, Chapter 10: The Abuse of
continue to respect them. There is "tacit consent" to them.
Government and Its Tendency to
Degenerate Analysis
The continual tension between the individual and general wills,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau has previously asserted the basic
Rousseau claims, ultimately leads to a government's end.
idea that a one-size-fits-all societal structure is doomed to fail.
Rousseau identifies two ways in which a government
Various factors, from geography to climate to population, have
"degenerates." One is its contraction, as "when it passes from
to be considered in determining what sort of government to
the many to the few," be it "from democracy to aristocracy, [or]
adopt. It is interesting that Rousseau focuses on climate and
from aristocracy to royalty." These movements, Rousseau
geography as conducive to certain forms of government,
maintains, are natural. The other degeneration of the

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 24

rather than impose a form. In this, he seems to anticipate

Book 3, Chapter 13: The Same
Marx's view that economic relations are derived from the
conditions on the ground. (continued)
Marx's theory could be said to have some basis at a time when Not only is regular assembly a crucial component of a state's
economic and social structures had such a firmly agricultural continued existence but also "fixed periodical assemblies"
base as they did in the 18th century, when Rousseau was attended without summons. While Rousseau does not
writing. Of course, a nation that produced cotton would differ prescribe a calendar for such assemblies, he does suggest
in nature and outlook from a nation that produced meat or that frequent assemblies correspond to a strong government.
cheese. However, the extension of his ideas to such concepts In addition, nothing should interfere with them, and if
as racial attitudes embedded in coastal people or people of something does, the state is damaged.
warm versus cold blood smacks of racism and becomes much
less relevant as societies transform from agricultural to
industrial and then from industrial to information and service- Book 3, Chapter 14: The Same
based economies.
(continued)
It is also worth noting Rousseau's emphasis on population
Rousseau concludes the three chapters on maintaining
growth as the mark of a good government. He appears to have
sovereign authority with Chapter 14. In it he focuses on its
in mind the idea that a robust population will be best able to
vulnerabilities. The power of the assembled people is such that
care for the basic needs to the society, thereby supporting a
"the executive power is [thereby] suspended, and the person
stable government. These types of arguments show how
of the meanest citizen is as sacred and inviolable" as that of
Enlightenment thinkers relied on rational thought to develop
the highest official.
their ideas.

While it is the government's (i.e., the executive branch's) role to

serve the general will, when that will is exercised, the
Book 3, Chapters 12–18 government's purpose is suspended. The government
responds, Rousseau points out, with some anxiety. It is, after
all, a "curb on the government," which is interested in
Summary preserving its own power. A state's downfall is heralded by a
"greedy, cowardly, and pusillanimous" citizenry that, over time,
gives in to the promises of an equally greedy ruler. They
Book 3, Chapter 12: How the Sovereign abdicate their freedom for temporary luxury.

Authority Maintains Itself

Book 3, Chapter 15: Deputies or
The Sovereign's power or force is nothing but "the legislative
power, [so that it] acts only by means of the laws." Representatives
Consequently, "the Sovereign cannot act save when the
people is assembled." Rousseau points to the Roman practice "As soon as public service ceases to be the chief business of
of assembling regularly, despite a "vast population." He looks the citizens," preferring to pay someone else to do their civic
even further back in history, in which he finds "most ancient duties, "the State is not far from its fall." According to
governments, even those of monarchical form ... had similar Rousseau, "idleness and money," in the form of a
councils." He concludes the brief chapter by asserting that this representative government, render citizens apathetic, so that
evidence (that is, what actually was the case) means that it is the general will is never realized.
possible in contemporary states.
Rousseau argues, based on his previous relevant concepts,
that "Sovereignty, for the same reason as makes it inalienable,
cannot be represented." Sovereignty cannot be transferred, as

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 25

would be the case if one pays someone to represent them.

Book 3, Chapter 18: How to Check the
The origin of representative government, Rousseau argues, is Usurpations of Government
the feudal system. It, Rousseau claims, is "that iniquitous and
absurd system which degrades humanity and dishonors the Rousseau completes his thread on the institution of
name of man." While it may have been the case in ancient governments in Chapter 18 with a summary of what has been
Greece and Rome that slavery afforded citizens the time argued thus far. Because the government is not equivalent to
required to participate in politics, representative government, the state, there is no contracting with it. Instead, the
Rousseau contends, creates a version of slavery all its own. government is an institution of law. Those executives of the
Given that the purpose of legislation is to declare the general government "are not the people's masters" but instead are
will, any version of representation delegitimizes the state. their "officers." The government is to obey the general will,
which can alter or dismantle that government "when it likes."
Finally, when one serves in the capacity of an executive, one
Book 3, Chapter 16: That the Institution thereby fulfills one's duty as a citizen.
of Government Is Not a Contract He also argues that the government should not be modified
"except when it comes to be incompatible with the public
Rousseau claims that there is no contract between the people
good." Though the government—class rule by aristocracy, for
and the government, or executive branch. No contract exists
example—is "provisional" and as such subject to change, any
between citizens and magistrates, for such would be a
adjustment is "dangerous," as it is disruptive to the common
surrendering of their freedom. Because inequality exists
good.
between magistrates and citizens, no contract, which implies
obligations, can be entered into. Instead, contracts are made Rousseau concludes Book 3 with two prescriptions for all
between equals; as Rousseau points out, "There is only one assemblies. These reflect the importance of the general will,
contract in the State, and that is the act of association." which is not bound by any external force to continue in its
present form. First, "does it please the Sovereign to preserve
the present form of government?" Second, "does it please the
Book 3, Chapter 17: The Institution of people to leave its administration in the hands of those who
Government are actually in charge of it?"

Rousseau was clear in Chapter 16 that the government is not

contracted—it is not an agreement between Sovereign and Analysis
magistrates. Instead, Sovereign law institutes the governing
body; the people nominate the magistrates. "This nomination, As Jean-Jacques Rousseau has already pointed out, the
being a particular act, is clearly ... a consequence of the first Sovereign and government are in continual tension. What he
and a function of government"—not a second law. focuses on in Chapters 12 through 14 are, respectively, the
state's assembly, the regularity of that assembly, and the
The order of operations is clear. No government exists prior to state's vulnerabilities. The general will is the body politic or
its legislation by the Sovereign, that is, the general will. The Sovereign, and is articulated in law. The practicalities of that
form of government (e.g., an aristocracy) is legislated. Once articulation—how the Sovereign's voice is heard—are explained
constituted, the government must be populated accordingly. by assemblies. All citizens must convene to discuss, debate,
This, then, becomes the second step. Though the Sovereign and legislate. Rousseau also emphasizes the importance of
only legislates and the nomination of magistrates is a particular regular assemblies to protecting the Sovereign's authority.
act (because at this moment the instituting of the government Without them the government can exert its will without
is incomplete), the people act, however briefly, as a impediment. For Rousseau, then, the duties of citizenship are
democracy. essential to the survival of the body politic. For that reason
they cannot be transferred.

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 26

Chapters 16 and 17 focus, respectively, on what the how a man can be both free and forced to conform to wills that
government is not, and what it is. The government is not a are not his own." His solution is to return to the conceptual
contract between political authority and citizens. It is, rather, starting point of the social contract, namely the agreement to
instituted by the Sovereign decree. The people, by law, decree "consent to all the laws, including those which are passed in
a form of government, and they "nominate the rulers who are spite of his opposition." Moreover, each citizen is to vote in
to be entrusted with the government that has been accordance to the general will. Consequently, Rousseau takes
established." a minority vote to be an error: "I was mistaken, and that what I
thought to be the general will was not so."

Book 4, Chapters 1–3

Book 4, Chapter 3:Elections
Rousseau moves on in Chapter 3 to consider elections.
Summary Elections by choice or vote are best suited to an aristocracy,
while elections by lot are more suited to a democracy. Because
the government's role is to implement the general will through
Book 4, Chapter 1: That the General Will its laws, it is important that those elected serve the common

is Indestructible good. In a democracy, such service is considered a burden—no

one's special interests are served, power is not
The general will, Jean-Jacques Rousseau claims, is exploited—which is the reason for election by lot.
indestructible. It may be subverted, silenced, or sold, but it
Rousseau thinks most governments will be a mixture of
cannot be destroyed. Promoting and protecting it is the
election by choice and by lot. Consequently, because the
supreme civic duty. Rousseau takes up this topic in the
offices to be filled should be elected on the basis of specific
remaining chapters in his final book.
skills (such as military service), election by choice is
He declares that the "upright and simple" individual facilitates appropriate. Where an office requires merely "good sense,
the general will, because this morally acute person is difficult justice, and integrity," election by lot is preferred. In a
to deceive. In addition, the management of the Sovereign is monarchical government, neither approach "has any place."
essential to the health and well-being of the general will.

Analysis
Book 4, Chapter 2: Voting
The general will can be abandoned but never destroyed. That
Rousseau maintains the voting right is an inalienable right of is because, according to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, it is that
every citizen. It is through voting that the general will is alone which aims at the common good. The exercise of that
exercised and actualized through legislation. This is most will occurs by voting. Here again, the imperative of each citizen
efficiently accomplished through unanimous agreement. "The to participate as a member of the Sovereign is highlighted.
more concert reigns in the assemblies ... the greater is the While the individual will may not coincide with the general will, it
dominance of the general will." is the latter that wins the vote. Insofar as the individual citizen
has already agreed to promote the common good through the
Such unanimity is, in practice, almost impossible to achieve.
general will, that individual still "wins," even if he voted
Moreover, it is not even desirable. To the extent that unanimity
otherwise.
can be achieved by corrupt means, it does not reflect the
general will. It is, consequently, not a requirement for The reader can imagine someone who, for example, has a
legislation. It is, however, a requirement for the social contract. financial interest in a company that engages in poor
Everyone who enters into a civil society must do so freely. environmental practices. Perhaps they pollute the water or air
during the process of manufacturing their product. That
The majority of votes wins the day. Rousseau recognizes a
individual's interest conflicts with the common good of clean
potential problem with this approach to voting: "But it is asked

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The Social Contract Study Guide Chapter Summaries 27

water or air. At the same time, clean water or air is also good
Book 4, Chapter 5: The Tribunate
for the individual. If that citizen votes against the common
good, they also vote against their own, more fundamental The tribunate is "the defender of the laws." Rousseau states
interest. Consequently, if the general will is, in this example, to that its role in the Roman Republic was "to protect the
create environmental protection laws, the good of all is Sovereign against the government," while its role as The
promoted. Council of Ten in Venice was "to uphold the government
against the people." In Sparta, the Ephors' role was to strike a
balance between the two.
Book 4, Chapters 4–9
Rousseau declares the tribunate to be "the strongest support a
good constitution can have." Its strength, however, cannot be

Summary "excessive," for then it "upsets the whole State." Nor can it be
weak, for that is unnatural: weakness defeats its reason for
being. For Rousseau, the veto power of the tribunate is key to
its protection of the general will.
Book 4, Chapter 4: The Roman Comitia
The first of five chapters devoted to the Roman Republic
Book 4, Chapter 6: The Dictatorship
begins with an analysis of the comitia, an institution Jean-
Jacques Rousseau takes to contribute to the maintenance of
In the Roman Republic the dictator was an office
the general will. After reviewing the basic makeup of the
institutionalized by constitution. It was active only during times
republic, Rousseau discusses the comitia, or lawfully
of crisis and for six months—or longer, depending on the
assembled divisions of the people for the purpose of organized
length of the crisis. The dictatorial power was virtually
lawmaking.
absolute.

When the assemblies, or comitia, were "lawfully summoned,"

Rousseau thinks a dictatorship is justified under only the most
three conditions had to exist in order "for their acts to have the
extreme circumstances, namely when the state's very
force of law": First, the one who convened the assembly had to
existence "is at stake." These circumstances should be rare,
have the requisite authority. Second, the assembly occurred
and when they do occur, there must exist a provision, for the
"on a day allowed by law; and [third] the auguries had to be
sake of public security, that entrusts the state to one who is
favorable."
"most worthy." In order to save the state, in other words, a
dictator may be required. His sole role is to ensure that the
Three comitia—the Curiae, the Centuriate, and the Tribal—each
state survives the crisis, and to this extent his actions are
had their drawbacks and benefits. Romulus founded the Curiae
aligned with the general will.
as a check on the Senate and people, and he maintained
power over both. According to Rousseau, it failed because it
did not include all citizens from the various classes of people.
Book 4, Chapter 7: The Censorship
The Centuriate, favored by aristocrats, represented all the
classes. The wealthiest, however, had the majority vote. Last,
"As the law is the declaration of the general will, the censorship
the Tribal Comitia inverted the flaw of the Centuriate. It
is the declaration of the public judgment." Maintenance of the
excluded the aristocrats. Of them, Rousseau claims, the
general will requires a virtuous citizenry, and a censor serves
Centuriate came closest to aiming to advance the general will.
as the spokesman for public morality. The Court of Honor's
role, consequently, is to maintain public virtue. More
In the Roman Republic, voting was a matter of verbal
specifically, Rousseau thinks the regulation of judgment is
declaration, which was noted by the clerk. The majority vote
conducive to the common good. The censor himself must be
won. "This custom was good as long as honesty was
reputed as honorable. Here again, Rousseau derives the office
triumphant among the citizens," and no one voted for an unjust
from the Roman Republic.
law. Because of corruption, however, secret voting became the
standard.

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The Social Contract Study Guide Quotes 28

Book 4, Chapter 8: Civil Religion Book 4, Chapter 9: Conclusion

Religion was initially the foundation of society. After all, people Rousseau concludes The Social Contract with ideas to
are much more willing to be ruled by gods than other people. consider in support of his present work. These include
Moreover, Rousseau continues, there were multiple gods for international law and relations, economics, and war. These
multiple city-states. Political wars, Rousseau maintains, were topics, however, extend beyond the scope of the current
effectively religious wars. What the Romans did when they treatise.
conquered a territory was to incorporate the vanquished gods
into the Roman pantheon, paganism.
Analysis
The Catholic Church, Rousseau argues, clearly distinguished
its theology from politics. When it gained immense power, Rousseau shows his appreciation for the Roman Republic in
Europe was left divided between religious and political the final chapters of The Social Contract by reviewing, at times
authority. While Rousseau commends Thomas Hobbes for a in detail, features of its organization he wishes to adopt in his
strategy to reunite them, he thinks it is a mistake to believe political theory. These include the comitia, occasional
such a reunification can be accomplished for this religion. tribunate, dictatorship, and public censor. The comitia, or
assembly, is the gathering of citizens to debate and vote on
Rousseau proceeds to outline three ways to practice religion.
legislation. It serves to check governmental encroachment into
The first he calls "the religion of man," and the second, the
the Sovereign, and vice versa. A dictatorship may be required
religion of the citizen. The third critiques for causing a duality in
to save the state in dire circumstances but is not an indefinitely
people's lives, demanding that they be loyal to two sets of laws,
held office. Last, public morality is preserved and promoted
two rulers, and two countries, rendering "them subject to
through censorship.
contradictory duties, and [making] it impossible for them to be
faithful both to religion and to citizenship." This, he declares, is Rousseau's discussion of religion in this last book is commonly
Catholicism. He doesn't much care for the second religion, viewed as the section that provoked authorities in Paris to ban
either; it is a recipe for tyranny and imperialism. It is the first The Social Contract. He argues that a civil religion is
religion, the true Gospel, that Rousseau initially proposes as appropriate to a civil society. This religion is the one most in
fitting for a civil state, for it reflects the values of the social keeping with the features of the Sovereign already discussed.
contract. "Every one would do his duty"; at every level of More specifically, it reflects the idea that the Sovereign's
society, people would be free from criminality, excess, power is limited to public interests. How people worship (or
corruption, cowardice, and vanity. not) is private. Publicly, however, the citizens must pledge
allegiance to certain ideas: that God exists, that there is an
A Christian state is not, however, without its flaws. For
afterlife, that one will promote universal justice, that one
example, Christians are not concerned with their earthly
respects the "sanctity" of the social contract, and that one will
existence. Consequently, they would be susceptible to abuses
reject intolerance. These pledges, according to Rousseau,
of power. Moreover, Christians do not make for good soldiers;
promote public virtue and a stable state.
"they have no passion for victory; they know better how to die
than how to conquer."

Having rejected Christianity as the religious basis for a civil g Quotes

society, Rousseau proposes a civil religion: "a purely civil
profession of faith," whose creed ("social sentiments" rather
than dogmas) is defined by the general will and aimed at "Man is born free; and everywhere
helping individuals become good citizens.
he is in chains."

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 1, Chapter 1

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The Social Contract Study Guide Quotes 29

This is Jean-Jacques Rousseau's aphoristic opening sentence interests of particular individuals are outweighed by the
and fundamental criticism of modern society, which restricts common interest, which is the common good.
human freedom and creates inequality.

"The Sovereign, merely by virtue of

"The strongest is never strong
what it is, is always what it should
enough to be always the master,
be."
unless he transforms that strength
into right." — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 1, Chapter 7

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 1, Chapter 3 For Jean-Jacques Rousseau no legitimate civil society exists
without the Sovereign, as he conceives it. Each citizen has
equal value; each citizen's voice is as strong as every other.
A society founded on tyranny is a society doomed to fail.
Following Plato, Jean-Jacques Rousseau argues against the
view that might makes right. Instead, a legitimate society is one
into which free people freely enter. He seems not to notice that
"Each member of the community
his theory sanctions revolution, because if free people freely gives himself to it, at the moment
enter a legitimate society, they may also freely leave it.
of its foundation."

"To renounce liberty is to — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 1, Chapter 9

renounce being a man, to

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is aware that people have different
surrender the rights [and duties] resources, goods, talents, skills, and so forth. Human beings
are not equal in this sense. But all human beings are equally
of humanity."
committed to the societies in which they live, whether they like
it or not.
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 1, Chapter 4

For Jean-Jacques Rousseau, freedom, or liberty, is "If then the people promises
fundamental to what it is to be human. This liberty generally
means freedom from external coercion.
simply to obey [it] loses what
makes it a people."

"Each of us puts his person ... — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 2, Chapter 1

under the supreme direction of the

For Jean-Jacques Rousseau the survival of the Sovereign is
general will."
the only guarantor of liberty, yet it will survive only if the people
guard their liberty, not ceding it over to someone to rule over
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 1, Chapter 6 them. This would be relinquishing their freedom and thus the
Sovereign would cease to exist.
The body politic, or Sovereign, consists of every citizen. Insofar
as entering into this body creates a single individual, the

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The Social Contract Study Guide Quotes 30

"There is often a great deal of "[Government is] an intermediate

difference between the will of all body set up between the subjects
and the general will." and the Sovereign, to secure their
mutual correspondence."
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 2, Chapter 3

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 3, Chapter 1

Jean-Jacques Rousseau understands that individuals have
particular interests. The sum of these interests is not, however,
Here, Jean-Jacques Rousseau offers a basic definition of the
the general will. That's because some interests are competing
government. It is the branch of the state that executes or
or outright contradictory. The general will, on the other hand,
carries out the laws and the daily administration of the state,
reflects the shared interest of the citizens. He takes this to be
guaranteeing liberty for all citizens.
the common good.

"When the whole people decrees "The Sovereign, having no force

for the whole people, it is other than the legislative power,

considering only itself." acts only by means of the laws."

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 3, Chapter 12

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 2, Chapter 6

Jean-Jacques Rousseau highlights the nature and function of

The Sovereign articulates the general will through legislating.
the Sovereign by how its voice is articulated, and how its voice
This is not a conglomeration of the individuals but the will of
is heard. The general will is articulated in law, and the citizens
the people as a unified entity. For Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
assemble to debate and create that law. When, he cautions,
laws by definitions are expressions of the general will.
the citizenry is assembled, the Sovereign has no power.

"[In the State] force and will are

"The moment the people is
distinguished: will [is] legislative
legitimately assembled as a
power and force [is] executive
sovereign body, the jurisdiction of
power."
the government wholly lapses."
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 3, Chapter 1
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 3, Chapter 14

Jean-Jacques Rousseau distinguishes the Sovereign from the

The authority of the state rests in the Sovereign. Jean-Jacques
government by an analogy to an individual: a person wills
Rousseau highlights this point by examining what happens
something and their body acts on it, or implements that will.
when the citizens assemble. More specifically, when the
Similarly, the Sovereign is the general will, and the government
citizens assemble to debate and legislate, the government
acts on it or implements law.
ceases to exist—there is, effectively, no law to administer.

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The Social Contract Study Guide Glossary 31

that implements the laws. It is the government's role to ensure

"[When citizens] would rather
that everyone respect the general will.
serve with their money than with
individual will an individual's particular self-interests
their persons, the State is not far
law the expression of the general will, applicable to citizens
from its fall." generally

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 3, Chapter 15 liberty in the state of nature, according to Rousseau, an
individual's license to do what they want. A legitimate civil
society preserves that freedom in the general will.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau is adamant that each citizen's duty is
to participate in political life. This duty cannot be transferred or social contract the agreement among individuals to form a civil
otherwise abnegated without "killing" the body politic, the society. For Rousseau a legitimate social contract preserves
Sovereign. liberty and equality.

sovereign the legislative voice of the citizens. The Sovereign

articulates the general will.
"[In the] purely civil profession of
faith ... the Sovereign should fix state of nature the condition of human beings, independent of
all civil society
the articles ... as social
will of all the sum of individual wills, not to be confused with
sentiments." the general will

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Book 4, Chapter 8

e Suggested Reading
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's book met with deep criticism from
both religious and nonreligious circles. It was banned in Paris Bertram, Christopher. Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to
largely on the basis of the chapter on religion. Rousseau Rousseau and the Social Contract. Routledge, 2003.
effectively rejects the idea that a particular religion should be
associated with the state. Instead, there should be belief in Cohen, Joshua. Rousseau: A Free Community of Equals.
divinity, for example, but not a divinity that is particularly Oxford UP, 2010.
identified. And the "religion" should help people be better
Williams, David Lay. Rousseau's Social Contract: An
citizens.
Introduction. Cambridge UP, 2014.

Wokler, Robert. Rousseau: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford

UP, 2001.
m Glossary
civil society a formal arrangement of individuals into a
cooperative group

common good good for all, rather than the particularized

goods of the individual will

general will also known as the Sovereign, the abstract idea

that aims at preserving and promoting the common good

government also known as the executive branch, the body

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