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The Geneva-Born philosopher of the Enlightenment, Jean Jacques Rousseau is considered to be one of the founders of modern political thought and political science. Together with Thomas Hobbes and John Locke-and despite the radical differences in their work as well as the different historical circumstances in which they developed their philosophy-Rousseau was one of the most important philosophers of the “social contract.” His famous book, The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right (1762), influenced not only the declarations of the French Revolution (1789), but also the development of political liberalism, the theory of human rights, government, and modern democracy. Also, because of his critique of the idea of individual property and wealth, Rousseau is often considered as a harbinger of socialist thought and social democracy.

For the humanist Swiss-Franc philosopher, “nature” and the “state of nature” were of paramount importance. The concept of “nature” is dialectically opposed to that of “civil society.” Civil society expresses for Rousseau the ways by which social members are coexisting in the organized, collective society. By their birth, and in the frame of their “state of nature,” individuals are characterized by primitiveness and virtue, although not by specific forms of immorality or morality. Individuals obtain their identity through their entrance to the rulebased civil society. In order to avoid the dangers of corruption caused by greed, and competition for wealth and violence, individuals inevitably have to abandon their initial state of nature. By entering society, they are forced to compromise with the other members of society for the achievement of social order and the establishment of a “social contract,” which in turn, is the fundamental basis of every organized society.

In Rousseau’s naturalist perception, civil society is far from being an ideal social formation. On the contrary, it is a society of inequality, for individuals are not equal with regard to property, civil rights, and freedom. Freedom is for him a utopian ideal and a kind of a pre-human, pre-social state of existence, while civil society is the space of inequality, plutocracy, exploitation and corruption. Whilst for John Locke, civil society is an important condition for the support of the property rights and the security of the individuals subordinated to the political power of government, for Rousseau it is the inevitable social formation in which people have to coexist since they are forced to abandon their state of nature.

Although he is critical of civil society, he does understand it as the main option for the achievement of social coherence and peaceful coexistence. The bridging between the state of nature and the civil society (namely the reconciliation of the individual with the broader society) will occur through the building of a mutual social contract. The basic task of government is, therefore, to guarantee through fair implementation of law, that the differences and inequalities that characterize individuals by their birth and state of nature will be diminished by effective governance and by law.

Government should respect and serve the “general will,” but, because for Rousseau the expression of general will requires also that citizens are well aware of public issues and participate equally in decision making, he underlined the importance of education to the creation of general will and emphasized the role of mutual commitments in the maintenance of the social contract. The task of government is not only the minimization of social inequality caused by economic exploitation, but also the interference of government in general economic issues in order to protect citizens from economic irresponsibility.

Bibliography:

Martin Carnoy, The State and Political Theory (Princeton University Press, 1984);
Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (Penguin, 1953);
Frederick Watkins, ed., Jean Jacques Rousseau: Political Writings (University of Wisconsin Press, 1986).