The social contract & discourses — Jean-Jacques Rousseau — John Shaqi
The social contract & discourses
Jean-Jacques Rousseau · en
The second view, which may be called the Social Contract theory proper,
regards society as originating in, or based on, an agreement between
the individuals composing it. It seems to be found first, rather
vaguely, in Richard Hooker's _Ecclesiastical Polity_, from which Locke
largely borrowed: and it reappears, in varying forms, in Milton's
_Tenure of Kings and Magistrates_, in Hobbes's _Leviathan_, in Locke's
_Treatises on Civil Government_, and in Rousseau. The best-known
instance of its actual use is by the Pilgrim Fathers on the _Mayflower_
in 1620, in whose declaration occurs the phrase, "We do solemnly and
mutually, in the presence of God and of one another, covenant and
combine ourselves together into a civil body politic." The natural
implication of this view would seem to be the corollary of complete
popular Sovereignty which Rousseau draws. But before Rousseau's time
it had been used to support views as diverse as those which rested on
the first form. We saw that, in Grotius's great work, _De Jure Belli et
Pacis_, it was already possible to doubt which of the two theories was
being advocated. The first theory was, historically, a means of popular
protest against royal aggression. As soon as popular government was
taken into account, the act of contract between people and government
became in effect merely a contract between the individuals composing
the society, and readily passed over into the second form.
The second theory, in its ordinary form, expresses only the view
that the people is everywhere Sovereign, and that, in the phrase
of Milton's treatise, "the power of kings and magistrates is only
derivative." Before, however, this view had been worked up into a
philosophical theory, it had already been used by Hobbes to support
precisely opposite principles. Hobbes agrees that the original contract
is one between all the individuals composing the State, and that the
government is no party to it; but he regards the people as agreeing,
not merely to form a State, but to invest a certain person or certain
persons with the government of it. He agrees that the people is
naturally supreme, but regards it as alienating its Sovereignty by
the contract itself, and delegating its power, wholly and for ever,
to the government. As soon, therefore, as the State is set up, the
government becomes for Hobbes the Sovereign; there is no more question
of popular Sovereignty, but only of passive obedience: the people is
bound, by the contract, to obey its ruler, no matter whether he governs
well or ill. It has alienated all its rights to the Sovereign, who is,
therefore, absolute master. Hobbes, living in a time of civil wars,
regards the worst government as better than anarchy, and is, therefore,
at pains to find arguments in support of any form of absolutism. It is
easy to pick holes in this system, and to see into what difficulties
a conscientious Hobbist might be led by a revolution. For as soon as