By
the former, freedom has a national champion in the western world, and by
the latter in Europe. When another nation shall join France, despotism
and bad government will scarcely dare to appear. The present age will
hereafter merit to be called the Age of Reason, and the present
generation will appear to the future as the Adam of a new world.

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

The Social Contract

Rousseau's "Social Contract" (Contrat Social) is the most
influential treatise on politics written in modern times. As its
title implies, the work is an endeavour to place all government on
the consent, direct or implied, of the governed; how, through the
rearrangement of society, man may, in a sense, return to the law of
nature. "Man is born free, and yet is everywhere in chains."
Logically, the "Social Contract" is full of gaping flaws. Like its
author's other books (see vol. vii, p. 176), it is an outpouring of
the heart very imperfectly regulated by a brilliant but eccentric
brain. As a political essay it is a tissue of fantastic arguments,
based on unreal hypotheses. But it set men's minds on fire; it was
the literary inspiration of one of the most tremendous events in
history, and those who would comprehend the French Revolution can
unravel many of its perplexities by studying the "Social Contract."
After its publication Rousseau had to fly to England, where he
showed marked symptoms of insanity.

_The Terms of the Contract_

My object is to discover whether, in civil polity, there is any
legitimate and definite canon of government, taking men as they are, and
laws as they might be. In this enquiry I shall uniformly try to
reconcile that which is permitted by right with that which is prescribed
by interest so as to avoid the clash of justice with utility.

Man is born free, and yet is everywhere in fetters. He is governed,
obliged to obey laws. What is it that legitimises the subjection of men
to government? I think I can solve the problem.

It is not merely a matter of force; force is only the power of the
strongest, and must yield when a greater strength arises; there is here
no question of right, but simply of might. But social order is a sacred
right that serves as a base for all others. This right, however, does
not arise from nature; it is founded, therefore, upon conventions. It is
necessary, then, to know what these conventions