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Chapter 48 The Gospel of the European Bourgeoisie
Chapter 47 The Gospel of the European Bourgeoisie: "The Social Contract"

The central idea of ​​Rousseau's "The Social Contract" is: Man is born free and equal, and the state can only be a free people
free association

If liberty is taken away by force, the people deprived of their liberty have the revolutionary power to take away by force
To return to one's own freedom, the sovereignty of the country rests with the people, and the best form of government should be a democratic republic.Rousseau's ideas on the French
The Revolution and the American Revolution had a huge impact. Both the Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration of Independence profoundly reflect the Social Contract

The spirit of "On", so this book is called "the bible of revolution".

A Work of Enlightenment Revolutionary Program

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712～1778) was an outstanding representative of the French Enlightenment in the 18th century, and a famous democratic thought
home, writer.

In 1750, Rousseau participated in the "Science and Art Progress Contributes to the Corruption of Customs or the Improvement of Customs" organized by the Academy of Dijon.
He became famous in one fell swoop by winning the first prize in his essay "On Science and Art" in the essay competition. In 1756 he published "On Injustice"
The Origin and Basis of Etc., After that, he devoted himself to writing for 6 years, and successively wrote "New Heloise" (1761) "Amy

Son" and "The Social Contract" (1762).The latter two works were banned by the French Parliament.

France is Rousseau's second home. France in the 18th century was a country dominated by small producers.Before the French Revolution, the bourgeois
Although the first class has developed economically, it is still a third class without power politically.Therefore, to overthrow the feudal government

The bourgeois revolution that abolished the feudal autocracy and the feudal autocracy was inevitable.

The various theories that emerged before the French Revolution fully prepared public opinion for this revolution, among them representing petty bourgeois ideology
, the more radical and revolutionary is Rousseau's thought, "The Social Contract" can actually talk about capitalism

role of the program of the bourgeois revolution.

Forerunner of the Theory of Democracy in The Social Contract

The Social Contract was published in 1762.The book is divided into four volumes.The first volume deals with the passage of man from the state of nature to the state of politics

Transition and the fundamental conditions of the social contract; Book II on legislation; Book III on forms of government; Book IV on the consolidation of the State
institutional approach. The main purpose of "The Social Contract" is to clarify the restoration of human beings' inherent freedom and freedom through the establishment of a social contract.

Equality, establishing the dominant position of the people's sovereignty and the due relationship between the government and the sovereign.

Rousseau declared in the book: Man is born free and equal, no one has natural authority to force others to obey, force cannot

Only a social contract based on the free will of the people can become the legal basis of the state and the law.

according to.At the conclusion of the contract, everyone unreservedly transfers himself and all the rights that are important to the political association to
Collective, and agree to accept the guidance of "general will", the purpose is to protect their own freedom, property and personal safety, provided that people
Man abides by the contract without exception.

Rousseau raised this question at the beginning of the book, expressing his protest against the feudal autocratic system, and revealing the existence of social existence at that time.

In the contradiction.He believed that the obstacles to human existence in the state of nature overwhelmed every human being in that state.

The power that can be used in order to survive under the state.It goes without saying that these obstacles were caused by the feudal system.Thus, the original state

It cannot continue to exist, and if human beings do not change their way of life, they will disappear.Where is the way out?he thinks,

Human beings can overcome these obstacles unless they gather their own strength to form a sum of power, and this sum of power is only

It takes the confluence of many people to produce it.

The connotation of the social contract is that each combiner and all his rights are transferred to the whole collective.Thus, from any
From each union, each man may acquire the same rights that he himself has ceded to him, and thus what he has lost.

The equivalent of everything and greater power to keep what is yours.Thus, the social contract or covenant can also be reduced to this

To put it this way: Everyone in the contract is jointly under the supreme direction of the general will with all his own powers, and in the common
The body accepts each member as an integral part of the whole.This combination produces a moral and collective

community, and by this act this community acquires its unity, its common self, its life and its meaning.

Chi.This public personality, formed by the union of all the individuals, was formerly called the city, and is now called the republic or body polity,

democratic country.Its associates are collectively called the people; individually, as participants in sovereignty, citizens;

Those who obey the law are called subjects.

In order not to render the social contract a dead letter, it contains provisions that give it strength: that is, whoever refuses to accept
Whoever follows the general will must be compelled by all to obey the general will.The general will always aims at the public interest and stipulates the common
Rules, always serving the common good, are always right.But it cannot be inferred that the considerations of the people will always have the same

The correctness.

There is a big difference between general will and general will.The latter looks at private interests and is just the sum of individual opinions.but,
Except for the positive and negative offsets between these opinions, the remaining sum is still the general will.What humans lose because of the social contract
his natural rights, and the unlimited rights he desires and can have, and what he acquires are the liberties of society and his

Ownership of everything.

The social contract confers absolute power on the body politic and over its members, which is also indivisible when directed by the general will
.By virtue of the nature of the convention, all acts of the Sovereignty—all acts which are truly general will—equally bind or take care of
all citizens.An act of sovereignty is an agreement between a community and its members, based on a social contract, which is legal

agreement.If the subject abides by this agreement, he obeys no one but his own will.Therefore, the Lord
Although power is completely absolute, completely sacred, and completely inviolable, it will not and cannot exceed the limits of public agreement.

boundaries, and everyone can do what he wants with the wealth and freedom agreed to be left to him.

The expression of the general will is the law, or rather, nothing but the conditions of social union.Rousseau here argues that the power to legislate belongs to man

The people can only belong to the people.The Sovereign has no other power than the legislative power.the people assembled, once

The ratification of a set of laws determines the constitution of the country.

The government is the executor of sovereignty, responsible for enforcing laws and maintaining social and political freedoms.But the people obey the government on the basis of which
This act is by no means a contract, it is a commission, in the name of the sovereign to exercise the power entrusted to it by the sovereign.host
Power holders can limit, change and withdraw this power.The trustee of administrative power is by no means the master of the people, but only the people's officials

, the people can entrust or replace them.

In the state, Rousseau believed that the state can only be the product of a free agreement of the people, and the best form of government should be a democratic republic.
peace country.In a state established by contract, the people hold sovereignty, that is, the legislative power, and the judicial and executive powers are subordinate to the legislative power.

The law is the general will, that is, the expression of the common will of the people, and no one can be above the law.The people not only have the right to regularly decide on political

form of government and the rights of rulers, and the right of revolt to overthrow contracts, laws, and tyrannical princes.

In "The Social Contract", Rousseau discussed the process of human beings establishing social and political systems based on the theory of the state of nature.
Criticized the feudal autocratic system in France, and pointed out that the basic social contradictions in France have developed to an irreconcilable level, and must be
Overthrow this unequal human social system and establish an ideal democratic political system that maintains human freedom and equality.thus,
Rousseau came to the conclusion of revolutionizing the French autocracy.

The classics of political commentary are praised by later generations

Rousseau's "The Social Contract", as an important work of Western political thought, occupies an important place in the history of Western political and legal theory.
important position.The thought of social contract theory and the political proposition of people's democracy in this book are better than those of other bourgeois at the same time.

Advanced thinkers are far more radical.His natural law theory is also the highest achievement of bourgeois political ideology, which has produced
had a great impact.

Rousseau's social contract theory and natural law theory first point to the feudal autocracy and feudal privileges, he uses the natural law theory
It debunks the irrationality of the feudal system, pointing out that it is a serious violation of the natural human rights that people are born free and equal.

Rousseau theoretically demonstrated that sovereignty lies with the people rather than the monarch, and systematically refuted the teaching of the sovereignty of the monarch, and

Negating the theory of separation of powers, it is proved that the principle of popular sovereignty is unshakable as a matter of course.

Rousseau's social contract theory and democratic theory are the forerunners of the bourgeois revolution.It has implications for bourgeois revolutions in all countries
Active impetus, the American Revolution of 1776 and the establishment of a post-revolutionary bourgeois republic, France's 1789
The bourgeois revolution, especially the revolutionary struggle of the Jacobins, owes much to Rousseau's Theory of the Social Contract.
Strong push.Guided by the theories of Rousseau and other Enlightenment thinkers, the French bourgeois revolution reached the
The peak of the revolution, the French Revolution became the most thorough bourgeois revolution.The success of the French Revolution also successfully promoted the world
Revolutionary struggles in other parts of the world, and Rousseau's "Social Contract" also spread to other countries, and was regarded as a gospel by the revolutionary people

To guide the revolution against the entire bourgeoisie.It can be seen that Rousseau's thought has decisive guiding significance for the entire bourgeois revolution.

Rousseau's social contract theory and the political and legal thought of people's democracy are the theoretical basis of the bourgeois political and legal system.
With regard to democracy and the rule of law, the natural rights of freedom and equality, and the idea that sovereignty rests with the people have become bourgeois constitutional principles.

It is no exaggeration to say that Rousseau is the most representative forerunner of bourgeois constitutional ideals, and The Social Contract is

A model of a bourgeois constitution.

Rousseau's thought in "The Social Contract" had a great influence on later generations.Rob

Speer, Marat, Jefferson in the United States, Kant in Germany and others all had great influence.His ideas of revolutionary democracy
Think socialist thinkers such as Babeuf, Mabry and others have a direct impact.Moreover, violence in Rousseau's political and legal thought
Revolutionary thinking, moderate centralization of state power, opposition to separation of powers, and the idea that officials at all levels of the government are public servants of the people.

The theory that the people are not the masters of the people and that the people have the right to entrust and replace, and the idea of ​​implementing direct democracy and opposing the representative system

, about the law being the embodiment of the general will, etc., which have great reference significance for the formation of the national and legal views of Marxist classic writers

Righteousness.

(End of this chapter)