Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was an important 18th century intellectual to think about the constitution of a State as an organizer of civil society as it is known today. For Rousseau, man would be born good, but society would corrupt him. Likewise, man would be born free, but everywhere he would find himself chained by factors such as his own vanity, fruit of the corruption of the heart. The individual would become a slave to his needs and those around him, which in a sense it refers to a constant concern with the world of appearances, pride, the search for recognition and status. Even so, he believed that it would be possible to think of an ideal society, thus having his ideology reflected in the conception of the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century.
The question that arose was: how to preserve the natural freedom of man and at the same time guarantee the security and well-being of life in society? According to Rousseau, this would be possible through a social contract, through which the sovereignty of society, the political sovereignty of the collective will, would prevail.
Rosseau realized that the search for well-being would be the only motive of human actions and, of the same, in at certain times the common interest could make the individual count on the assistance of their similar. On the other hand, at other times, competition would make everyone distrust everyone. Thus, in this social contract it would be necessary to define the issue of equality among all, of commitment among all. If, on the one hand, the individual will would relate to the private will, the will of the citizen (that who live in society and are aware of it) should be collective, there should be an interest in the good ordinary.
This thinker believed that it would be necessary to establish justice and peace in order to submit the powerful and the weak equally, seeking eternal harmony among people who lived in society. A fundamental point in his work is the assertion that private property would be the origin of inequality between men, and some would have usurped others. The origin of private property would be linked to the formation of civil society. Man begins to have a preoccupation with appearance. In society life, being and seeming become two different things. Therefore, for Rousseau, chaos would have come through inequality, the destruction of natural piety and justice, making men evil, which would put society in a state of war. In the formation of civil society, all piety falls to the ground, and "from the moment one man needed the help of another, as soon as it was noticed that it would be useful for a single individual to have provisions for two, equality disappeared, property was introduced, work became necessary” (WEFFORT, 2001, P. 207).
Hence the importance of social contract, for men, after having lost their natural freedom (when the heart had not yet corrupted, if there is a natural piety), they would need to gain civil liberties in exchange, such contract being a mechanism for this. The people would be at the same time an active and passive part of this contract, that is, agents of the process of elaboration of the laws and compliance with these, understanding that obeying the law that is written for oneself would be an act of freedom.
In this way, it would be a legitimate pact based on the total alienation of the particular will as a condition of equality between all. Therefore, the sovereignty of the people would be a condition for their liberation. Thus, the sovereign would be the people and not the king (this one was only an official of the people), a fact that would put Rousseau in a position contrary to the Absolutist Power in force in Europe at his time. He speaks of the validity of the role of the State, but also points out possible risks for its institution. The thinker evaluated that just as an individual could try to make his will prevail over the collective will, so the State could also subjugate the general will. Thus, if the State had its importance, it would not be sovereign by itself, but its actions should be given in the name of the sovereignty of the people, a fact that suggests an appreciation of democracy in the thinking of Rousseau.
Paulo Silvino Ribeiro
Brazil School Collaborator
Bachelor in Social Sciences from UNICAMP - State University of Campinas
Master in Sociology from UNESP - São Paulo State University "Júlio de Mesquita Filho"
Doctoral Student in Sociology at UNICAMP - State University of Campinas
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/sociologia/rousseau-contrato-social.htm