Previous
Book 1, Chapter 4
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Social Contract, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Human Freedom and Society
Sovereignty, Citizenship, and Direct Democracy
Government and the Separation of Powers
National Longevity and Moral Virtue
Summary
Analysis
Rousseau notes that, even if slavery were legitimate, it is not a reasonable analogy to governance, because the people “have a common good” and constitute “a body politic.” Someone who “enslave[s] half the world” does not create a nation by doing so. In fact, by recognizing that “a people” can “give itself to a king,” Grotius also recognizes that “a people is a people” because of some more fundamental reason, which must be “the real foundation of society.” This foundation must be some “earlier agreement.” (This agreement also explains why people accept the rule of the majority.)
To contemporary readers, it is obvious that the concept of the nation implies that people are unified in some fundamental way, which is different from a group that is oppressed by the same king. The difference is, of course, whether people have chosen to work together or not—or, in other words, whether they have a say in how they are governed. In fact, this all seems obvious today precisely because of the influence of arguments like the one Rousseau is making here—in Rousseau’s own time, it may not have been at all clear that “a people” could act as a collective. Rousseau does not say that all kings are legitimate, but rather suggests that they can only be legitimate if they are chosen by the people themselves. Therefore, the king is only a deputy for the people, who hold the real, fundamental authority in their society.
Themes
