Rousseau’s social contract theory

Abstract：Jean-Jacques Rousseau is one of the greatest philosophers in Enlightenment.His thoughts have a great effect on the European society.In this article，the author focuses on one of his ideas---social contract theory.At first，author introduces the details of social contract，and then sovereignty of the people and its relationship with social contract theory will be presented，finally，the author will express her idea about social contract.

Key words：Rousseau；social contract theory；judgment

1.Introduction of social contract theory

Rousseau thinks private ownership is the foundation of inequality and that people enter the society from the natural state to sign contract，the purpose of signing social contract and building a nation is to protect their own freedom and life.\"Society and law are or should be originate like this.They give the weakthe new shackles and give rich new strength；they destroy the natural freedom，the freedom can not be recovered；they identify the law of the protection of private property and the recognition of inequality to take away by force or trickery into irreversible right；since then，impelling for entire human labor of bear，servitude and povertyfor the interests of minority careerist.\" He criticizes and denies this inequality to explore a new contract relationship from the theory.

I think there are two points that Rousseau wanted to express in his book：one is that people are born free and equal，nations are the outcome of social contract，countries must guarantee the freedom，otherwise people have the rights to regain freedom through revolution；the other is that national sovereignty belongs to people，promotingdemocratic politics and supporting democratic republic.

2.Sovereignty of the people and the relation with social contract

As for the theory of sovereignty，Rousseau thinks that it means people perform sovereignty of a nation；countries based on the social contract，the highest authority can only belong to all the people.Rousseau advocates people are born equal，nation is the product of free protocol.\"sovereign\" in him is no longer refers toa monarch or noble group or government，but only people.So by the means of contract theory is complete transformation of the natural state of the individual to the political significance of the people.The sovereign is the people.And the essence of sovereignty consists of all the \"general will\"，not by a single individual or group.In this sense，Rousseau insisted that only by people's direct participation and decision of state affairs is the realization of the principle of people's sovereignty.The people's sovereignty is based on people's \"general will\"，\"general will\" is the guidance，\"and reflect the general will\".He pointed out that，the people's sovereignty is the soul of a nation and the life of regime.The \"general will\" is a core concept.Rousseau thinks that people's sovereignty \"is nothing more than the use of general will\".Public opinion plays a very important role in the political theory of Rousseau.

3.My ideas on Rousseau’s thoughts

I have some doubts about the premise.First，man is born free.This is a kind of idealistic assumptions，it does not give the real argument and is filled with a romantic color.With the despair，if human beings appeared in the desperate situation already has a certain development，in this period of time whether there has been a part of people get what Rousseau calledthe \"power\" through their own strength.The contract will lose fair in this way.But we are willing to accept concept that people are born free，and that it is more a direction of social civilization than a reality，from slave society to capitalist society，the pursuit of freedom value and equality valueis obvious.Secondly，for despair，it is quite difficulty to prove that.What kind of natural threats can force the people to establish a state.There is no historical hypothesis test can not be carried out practical proof.And it cannot prove that where and when，in what way that people reach what kind of content of the social contract.Some people think that there is no contract，only exists in theory of contract，contract is only a theoretical hypothesis，no propose of this specific concept of contract does not affect the structure of this theory.Rawls pointed out that this view in the a theory of justice.After all，not any country can come up with a contract to prove this theory.Although Rousseau's argument is self-contained，but strict logical defects cannot replace the premise.

Reference：

[1]Ernest Barker，Introduction in The Social Contract[M].New York：Oxford University Press，1948.

[2]Peter Gay，Introduction in The Question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau[M].New Haven and London：Yale University Press，1989.