The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Review #theclassics
After reading the The Social Contract (Penguin Great Ideas)
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, which was published in 1762, I conclude that unless you are a political theorist or political scientist, there is no reason for you to read it. In February, the books to read should be a lot more interesting than the ones this month. The good news is that we are reading Sherlock Holmes which you can hardly go wrong with; Beowulf which is a saga; The Aeneid, an epic poem; All Quiet on the Western Front which is an interesting tale about war and doesn’t glorify it; and The Woman in White is a dramatic story based on a court case….
I know that I have a compelling reason for pursuing my liberal arts education, and I know that many of the books that I am reading and planning to read appear on lists of must-read books, but I must admit that so far, some of these books are dry, and difficult to get excited over. But my purpose keeps be trudging along.
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau is not an easy read, and it is not a book that you rush through if you want to understand what the author is saying. Although I do not agree with everything that Jean-Jacques Rousseau is saying in his book, it is a book that makes me think. The Social Contract is the author’s treatise on the political foundations of the ideal political state. According to Rousseau, his purpose, “Is to consider if, in political society, there can be any legitimate and sure principle of government, taking men as they are and laws as they might be.”
Last week we looked at the Republic of Plato, which discusses the ideal city and deals with the nature of justice and the organization of societies. Rousseau mentions Plato in his book, and there are some overlapping themes between the Social Contract and the Republic of Plato. The Social Contract lays the foundation for the modern political state and the Republic of Plato lays the foundations for an ancient one.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau has a powerful start in the first chapter of The Social Contract, “Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.” This reminds us that the only person we can master is ourselves. And we sometimes put ourselves into prisons of our own making. This interpretation may not be what Rousseau had in mind, but it is worth considering. In the book, he refers to the sovereign, which is a collective group of all the people. Each individual is self-interested and only wants what’s advantageous for him/her, but the sovereign aims for the common good. The social contract gives the individual civil liberty, moral freedom, and the legal right of property, but he loses his natural liberty – which has no limits – and the right to take whatever he pleases.
In The Social Contract, Rousseau proposes that a well-governed state has few criminals, and that anyone that commits a crime does so against society, and is a rebel and traitor to the country. By violating the law, the person ceases to be a member. Rousseau advocates for the death penalty – the violator is a public enemy. There is an interesting discussion about who legislates the laws in the nation, and he says that the people who legislate the law have to be different from those who rule. He talks about the need for a strong and healthy constitution.
In Chapter 6, “The Social Pact,” Rousseau believes that his concept of the social contract is the answer to the fundamental problem, “finding a form of association which will defend the person and goods of each member with the collective force of all, and under which each person, while uniting himself with the others, obeys no one but himself, and remains as free as before.” And to explain what he means by a social contract, he summarizes, “Each one of us puts into the community his person and all his powers under the supreme direction of the general will; and as a body, we incorporate every member as an indivisible part of the whole.” Each person is making a contract with the state. As a united body, what harms one person, harms the whole. This reminded me of a quote by Martin Luther King Jr, “We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny, whatever affects one directly, affect all indirectly.” Martin Luther King” (Letter from Birmingham Jail).
Rousseau discusses the cause of war, and he proposes that we have wars because of conflicts over things, and not quarrel between men. Think about that for a second. Think about some of the wars today, some of the reasons have to do with conflict over who owns land, and inequitable distribution of the world’s wealth. Rousseau further adds that war is not between men, but between states.
There are four forms of government: Democracy, Aristocracy, Monarchy and mixed government. A democracy is more prone to civil war and war between nations. An aristocracy has a government and a sovereign, and the first societies were governed aristocratically. And he adds that the savages of North America use this method of governing and that they are well governed – it is the most stable form of government. It is worth reminding you that America declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776, which is after The Social contract was first published. Throughout the 1760s and early 1770s, the North American colonists were increasingly at odds with British policies regarding taxation and frontier policy. At the time of the Declaration of Independence, there were 13 North American colonies that severed political connections with Britain.
In a monarchy, one person holds the power, a king or a queen. Monarchs want absolute power. In the discussion on monarchy Rousseau mentions The Prince, written by political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli as a handbook for republicans. A well-governed monarchy depends on the size of the country and the abilities of the monarch, and they are seldom ruled adequately. A disadvantage of the monarchy is the lack of continuity of succession.
Whether or not we agree with Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s politics, his treatise is very well-thought out and he looks at the various aspects of what it takes to have an ideal political state, including forms of government, elections, justice, sovereignty, legitimate power…. There are many nuggets of wisdom interspersed throughout The Social Contract. In the discussion he talks about Peter the Great from Russia, who tried to turn his subjects into Germans. He urged them to be what they were not, which stifled and prevented them from realizing their full potential and becoming what they might have been. This is a fantastic lesson, and not an important part of the book. But I am known for picking out things that touch my heart, and not what an author considers to be important.
As I have said before unless you are a political scientist or theorist, or simply someone who is very much interested in all things politics, then The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau will not interest you. In case you are interested, the major themes in the books are sovereignty, morals, and legitimate political authority. He ends the book with a chapter on Civil Religion in which he discusses theocracy. He concludes, “Now that there is not, and can no longer be, an exclusive national religion, all religions which themselves tolerate others must be tolerated, provided only that their dogmas contain nothing contrary to the duties of the citizen.” The Social Contract (Penguin Great Ideas) inspired many, and not always in a good way. The despots of the French Revolution used the information in their reign of terror. Despite this, the book is a seminal piece of work of political theory.
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Author Bio: Avil Beckford, an expert interviewer, entrepreneur and published author is passionate about books and professional development, and that's why she founded The Invisible Mentor and the Virtual Literary World Tour to give you your ideal mentors virtually in the palm of your hands by offering book reviews and book summaries, biographies of wise people and interviews of successful people.
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