Social Contract and Discourses on Book Review

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The Sovereign can only demand from the citizens those services that serve for the purpose of the community (Rousseau, 15).

Rousseau explains why the general will "is always in the right" in a civil society (idem). The society is always conditioned by "the true principle of equity" (idem) that should guide its laws. A civil society binds its citizens under the same conditions and gives them the same rights. The absolute power of the body politic, that is, the Sovereign, is legitimate in making an act of sovereignty because "it is based on the social contract, and equitable, because common to all" (idem, 16).

The civil society provides its members a "better and more secure life" than what they had before uniting in forming it (idem, 16). The civil society gives its citizens liberty in exchange for their natural independence, security, in exchange for the right to harm others and rights that are invincible thanks to their union (Rousseau, 16).

The state makes the conditioned gift of life preservation and has the right to ask for a member to sacrifice his or her own life in order for the whole society to continue to exist. A state's existence and functioning depends on the quality of its government. The well governed state is a state that rarely has to punish one of its members, whereas an ill-governed state is in decay (Rousseau, 17).

The "social compact" sets the body politic in motion and gives it a will by creating the laws that will then give the members of the society rights and duties (idem).

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Civil association is conditioned by the laws society sets up through an organ of the body politic: the legislator (idem, 19).

The stability of a state depends according to Rousseau on the sanity of its foundations, therefore, civil society must be founded upon a solid foundation. The respective society is bound to go through difficulties of all sorts, but due to its safe grounds, it will not perish, but grow stronger. Rousseau even finds an logical explanation for the necessity of a state to expand by conquering new territories. It is out of the mere necessity to provide the means of existence for its members and thus assure its continuity (idem, 23). The citizens depend on the resources of their land and therefore there, the civil society must see that its members are not exceeding the resources the cand get from the occupied land (idem, 23).

Rousseau pinpoints the one criterion a civil society has to meet in order to be viable above all other conditions: the preservation of peace and the supply of means to continually find resources.

Rousseau, J.J. The Social Contract, a Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, and a Discourse on Political Economy. Digireads.com Publishing, 2006….....

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