How Did The Social Contract By Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a Genevan philosopher and writer, influenced many, especially the French Revolution and indirectly the United States of America, with his article “The Social Contract.” After his death, Rousseau’s ideas were radicalized to the extreme and used by the Reign of Terror during the revolution. Many consider the radicalized version to represent Rousseau’s philosophy on government; however, his only had good intentions.
The Social Contract was developed by Rousseau to better the government. In his document, he questions whether there can be a higher power to support the people. He compares it to a state of nature, where there is no authority but themselves. Rousseau believes in authority figures to lead, rather than rule and enslave. He believes in giving up some rights for an overall and better bit of freedom by achieving a common good for balance. He clearly states that this is different than giving up all freedoms by stating that the people should be able to choose what laws are just and unjust for the community. For a backup plan, he suggests that people can leave whenever they feel the ideals of the community do not fit together with his or her ideals. After leaving, he or she is able to begin again with his or her own standards of freedom.
During Rousseau’s time, he has seen corrupt governments and monarchies; he created this document to develop a type of government that would listen to the majority of society, which is made up of regular people. He was very open and considered both genders to be equal and part of the population. Power to the people is needed to help balance the community and revolt against the government when overstepping on the people’s rights. Rousseau believed in having an government or...

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...ve to a master and relates it back to the relationship of subjects to a king.
Rousseau’s ideal society is freedom, as stated before; he aspired to form a utopia by adopting laws to set boundaries. However, Rousseau did not put into perspective how the laws can be manipulated to go against a certain class of people if they overrule the majority. An example is America’s society today. When the economy was down in the dumps in the 2000s, to resurrect the hurt economy laws were passed to bring it back to the way it was. However, the law that was passed only helped the one percent and left behind the other ninety-nine percent of the population still overcoming the hardship from the economic crash. Rousseau eventually says that one can never be free when held down by private property and laws. However, the law that he wants to input are to at least mimic the natural state.