The idea of the social contract is that a government is only legitimate if it has Quizlet

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American Government

1st EditionGlen Krutz

412 solutions

Politics in States and Communities

15th EditionSusan A. MacManus, Thomas R. Dye

177 solutions

Politics in States and Communities

15th EditionSusan A. MacManus, Thomas R. Dye

177 solutions

Government in America: Elections and Updates Edition

16th EditionGeorge C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, Robert L. Lineberry

269 solutions

(A) 'The sovereign, then, consisting solely of the individual persons which form it, has and can have no self-interest that is contrary to theirs; as a result, it does not need to give any form of guarantee to its subjects, because it is impossible that the body should want to harm all its members; and as we shall see..., it cannot harm anyone individually. Simply by virtue of its existence, the sovereign is always what it should be.' (SC 1.7)

(B) 'Why is it that the general will is always in the right [just], and why is the happiness of each the constant wish of all, unless it is because there is no one who does not apply the word each to himself, and is not thinking of himself when he votes for all?' (SC 2.4)

Rousseau's basic argument here: the people will not make laws that burden some citizens heavily because all laws apply equally to all and no person will vote for a law that is burdensome to himself.

But Rousseau also seems to believe that citizen virtue is a necessary condition for the emergence of the general will in the first place. This presents him with a problem for which his figure of the legislator is one attempted solution. As a believer in the plasticity of human nature, Rousseau holds that good laws make for good citizens. However, he also believes both that good laws can only be willed by good citizens and that, in order to be legitimate, they must be agreed upon by the assembly. This puts him in some difficulty, as it is unlikely that the citizens who come together to form a new state will have the moral qualities required to will good laws, shaped as those citizens will have been by unjust institutions. The legislator or lawgiver therefore has the function of inspiring a sense of collective identity in the new citizens that allows them to identify with the whole and be moved to support legislation that will eventually transform them and their children into good citizens. In this story, however, the new citizens at first lack the capacity to discern the good reasons that support the new laws and the lawgiver has to persuade them by non-rational means to legislate in their own best interests.
The figure of the legislator is a puzzle. Like the tutor in Emile, the legislator has the role of manipulating the desires of his charges, giving them the illusion of free choice without its substance. Little wonder then that many critics have seen these characters in a somewhat sinister light. In both cases there is a mystery concerning where the educator figure comes from and how he could have acquired the knowledge and virtue necessary to perform his role. This, in turn, raises a problem of regress. If the legislator was formed by a just society, then who performed the legislator's role for that society, and how was that legislator formed? How did the tutor acquire his education if not from a tutor who, in turn, was educated according to Rousseau's program by an earlier tutor?

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Terms in this set (33)

- "In a monarchy the government is headed by one person, such as a king or a queen, who exercises supreme authority. Monarchs inherit their position and their power by virtue of being born into a royal family. In an absolute monarchy, their powers are unlimited and unchecked.
- Monarchies have been the most common form of rule in world history. Today though, monarchies are rare. In some nations, such as Saudi Arabia, the royal family still exercises ultimate authority. Most present-day kings and queens, however, are ceremonial heads of state for constitutional monarchies. The real power lies in another part of government, such as a legislative body. Spain, Great Britain, and Japan are just a few of the world's 30 constitutional monarchies."

- "A dictatorship is a system of rule in which one person, a dictator, or a small group of people can hold unlimited power over government. Dictators often achieve power by violently overthrowing a government. They maintain power by force, stifling even peaceful opposition with varying degrees of repression and brutality."
- "most dictators head authoritarian regimes, under which people are subject to various forms of state control. At its most extreme, authoritarianism becomes totalitarianism. Totalitarian governments seek to dominate all aspects of society—the government, the economy, and even people's personal beliefs and actions. Nazi Germany under Hitler, the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, China under Mao Zedong, and North Korea under Kim Jong Il are examples of totalitarian regimes.
- Some dictatorships may be led by small groups of people, usually members of the military or the economic elite. This state of affairs is sometimes called an oligarchy, meaning rule by a few, or an aristocracy. Many dictatorships are secular governments, meaning that their laws and political institutions are independent of religion. Others, however, are theocracies, or governments under the rule of a small group of religious leaders."