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The “body politic” is a longstanding metaphor for the state or nation that extends back to ancient Sanskrit and Greek philosophy. (“Body” is the noun and “politic” is the adjective, so “body politic”—or “corps politique” in French—simply means “political body.”) This term compares a state to the human body, suggesting that a nation is made of different people and institutions who serve different functions, just like different body parts work in harmony to make up a human being. Rousseau uses this same metaphor throughout The Social Contract: for instance, he says that nations are like humans because they all eventually die, although the strongest ones live the longest, and he compares the legislative branch (or sovereign) to the heart (because it has to function “in perpetuity” for the whole “body” to remain alive). For Rousseau, then, the “body politic” metaphor is firstly a way of clearly explaining what a state is—it is a corporation or “artificial person” made up of a large number of citizens working together, under the equal conditions they established in the social contract. But Rousseau also uses this metaphor to cite his philosophical predecessors and, most importantly, to highlight his differences from them. Different philosophers have used this metaphor differently: for example, Thomas Hobbes, who put a drawing of the body politic metaphor on the cover of his book Leviathan, famously thought that a king should have absolute power as the sovereign (which he compared to the head, not the heart). But Rousseau, in contrast, thinks the people are sovereign, so his different use of the body politic symbol expresses his different philosophy. Indeed, Rousseau imagines a body politic made up of consenting, equal citizens in order to suggest that a society can be unified, coherent, and governed by and for the people.
The Human Body and the Body Politic Quotes in The Social Contract
The The Social Contract quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Human Body and the Body Politic. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 1, Introduction
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Born as I was the citizen of a free state and a member of its sovereign body, the very right to vote imposes on me the duty to instruct myself in public affairs, however little influence my voice may have in them. And whenever I reflect upon governments, I am happy to find that my studies always give me fresh reasons for admiring that of my own country.
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Book 1, Chapter 7
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The act of association consists of a reciprocal commitment between society and the individual, so that each person, in making a contract, as it were, with himself, finds himself doubly committed, first, as a member of the sovereign body in relation to individuals, and secondly as a member of the state in relation to the sovereign. Here there can be no invoking the principle of civil law which says that no man is bound by a contract with himself, for there is a great difference between having an obligation to oneself and having an obligation to something of which one is a member.
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Hence, in order that the social pact shall not be an empty formula, it is tacitly implied in that commitment—which alone can give force to all others—that whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be constrained to do so by the whole body, which means nothing other than that he shall be forced to be free; for this is the necessary condition which, by giving each citizen to the nation, secures him against all personal dependence, it is the condition which shapes both the design and the working of the political machine, and which alone bestows justice on civil contracts—without it, such contracts would be absurd, tyrannical and liable to the grossest abuse.
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Book 3, Chapter 1
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The public force thus needs its own agent to call it together and put it into action in accordance with the instructions of the general will, to serve also as a means of communication between the state and the sovereign, and in a sense to do for the public person what is done for the individual by the union of soul and body. This is the reason why the state needs a government, something often unhappily confused with the sovereign, but of which it is really only the minister.
What, then, is the government? An intermediary body established between the subjects and the sovereign for their mutual communication, a body charged with the execution of the laws and the maintenance of freedom, both civil and political.
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Book 3, Chapter 11
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Such is the natural and inevitable tendency of the best constituted governments. If Sparta and Rome perished, what state can hope to last for ever? If we wish, then, to set up a lasting constitution, let us not dream of making it eternal. We can succeed only if we avoid attempting the impossible and flattering ourselves that we can give to the work of man a durability that does not belong to human things.
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The Human Body and the Body Politic Symbol Timeline in The Social Contract
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Human Body and the Body Politic appears in The Social Contract. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1, Chapter 5: That We Must Always Go Back To an Original Covenant
...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....
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Book 1, Chapter 6: The Social Pact
...for this community and its members: depending on the context, it can be called a body politic, nation, or republic (which are synonyms); a state (as a “passive” institution that is...
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Book 1, Chapter 7: The Sovereign
...member of society is two things at the same time: a citizen “of the sovereign body” who is partially responsible for making laws and “a member of the state” who is...
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Book 2, Chapter 4: The Limits of Sovereign Power
...then, “is not a covenant between a superior and inferior,” but rather one “of the body with each of its members.” The sovereign power cannot exceed the limits of these covenants...
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Book 2, Chapter 6: On Law
Rousseau explains that the social contract creates the body politic, but the nation must pass laws to preserve itself. While true justice and goodness...
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...“laws are […] the conditions on which civil society exists.” But Rousseau asks how the body politic makes these laws, for unfortunately it “seldom knows what is good for it,” even...
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Book 2, Chapter 11: Various Systems of Law
...legal systems must pursue two goals: “freedom and equality.” Freedom is the basis of the body politic, and equality is necessary to ensure freedom. Rousseau does not think everyone should have...
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Book 2, Chapter 12: Classification of Laws
...if unsuitable, can be changed). Then, to define how each citizen relates to the whole body politic, it requires “Civil Laws.” Next, it uses “Criminal Laws” to establish disobedient people’s relation...
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Book 3, Chapter 1: Of Government in General
Rousseau continues by declaring that a government is like a microcosm of the body politic and says that it is comprised of different parts or administrators, organized hierarchically. However,...
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Book 3, Chapter 4: Democracy
...with the legislative,” but this creates a situation Rousseau calls “government without government.” Namely, “the body of the people” should stay focused on making the laws, rather than implementing them in...
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Book 3, Chapter 10: The Abuse of Government and its Tendency to Degenerate
...the government will always defeat the sovereign, “just as old age and death destroy the body of a man.” And “a government degenerates” when the government itself shrinks—after it starts losing...
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Book 3, Chapter 11: The Death of the Body Politic
...eventually fall, and lawgivers must recognize this in order to set up effective ones. The body politic ages and dies like the human body: the stronger it is, the longer it...
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Book 4, Chapter 2: The Suffrage
Rousseau again reiterates that the way a state functions reveals the body politic’s “moral character” and “health.” The more united it is, the healthier it is and...
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