Rousseau's Social Contract and the General Will

Rousseau's Critique of Hobbes and Locke

In his political thought, Jean-Jacques Rousseau identifies two fundamental shortcomings in the social contract theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke:

• Regarding Hobbes: Rousseau finds that his form of contract—the contract of submission—denies the natural freedom of man and neither establishes nor allows for civil and political liberties.
• Regarding Locke: Rousseau seeks a contract far more radical, in which man receives civil liberty along with all its rights.

In effect, according to Rousseau, the "natural" man has no true freedom or liberty before their partnership in the State. However, Rousseau famously states, "Man is born free, and everywhere is in chains." How has such a change been produced? Above all, he asks: how must we institute a social and political order that respects the freedom of men? How can we legitimize the power of that order?

The True Social Link

The social contract must be based on a free agreement. This does not mean, in any way, that the social and political order established by this contract should not be compulsory by law or require submission to it.

Submission to Law as True Freedom

The genuineness of the social contract lies precisely in the sense of submission to the law as freedom. Human beings are not subject to a law unless they have imposed it upon themselves, freely and rationally. "To give oneself to all," says Rousseau, is not to give oneself to anyone in particular. Since no member of the community exists who does not gain the same right that they grant others over themselves, each person recovers what they give to the same extent. At the same time, they receive a greater force to assert themselves and remain who they are.

The Transition to a Rational State

Thus, men move from a natural state to a state based on reason and the fruit of freedom. Such a social community would, therefore, be well above the state of nature. In the state that arises from the social contract:

1. All human beings are in the same situation.
2. It establishes a fair, legitimate political and social order.
3. It represents the general will—that community (social, political, and moral) in which individuals become citizens.

These citizens are members of a society with rights and legal obligations (including moral ones) involving all political organizations and the state under the rule of law.