“The Social Contract”
Jean-Jacque Rousseau

Book 1
Summary & My own thoughts:

Chapter 5: We must always go back to a first agreement Rousseau believes that a despotic ruler may rule half of the world people, but as soon as he dies his empire would shortly collapse because his interests was simply his sole private interest, therefor there is no unity. The ruler does not try win the people’s heart, he rules by inflicting fear among the mass, fear of typically one individual, himself. By dominating with fear he isolates himself from the mass, upon that he does not care about public’s interest, therefor when his reign is over his empire will dissolve into a heap of ashes. It is the prior agreement that makes the minority obligated to the majority’s vote.

Chapter 6: The social compact

Rousseau concluded that the social compact boils down to ‘Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.’
This is the first time in this work that Rousseau comes up with the phrase ‘the general will’.

Chapter 7: The sovereign

Each individual when making a contract with himself would acquire two commitments: (a) as a member of the state he has a commitment to the sovereign, and (b) as a member of the sovereign. An individual would have a particular will that contradicts with the general will and might think he/she is not obliged to contribute to the general will. So he may wish to enjoy the rights of citizenship without being ready to fulfill the duties of a subject; and if that went on for long enough it would destroy the body politic.
In order to protect the social compact, it silently includes the undertaking that anyone who refuses to obey the general will is to be compelled to do so by the whole body. It is the