With the germination of the Renaissance in Europe, the resistance to feudal autocracy and religious repression in the field of culture and thought became stronger and stronger. The progress of social productive forces makes the bourgeoisie, as an important emerging social force, demand social change.
In this context, it is not surprising that Rousseau's social contract theory appeared.
In any country and society, social change and regime change are always the first. Rousseau's social contract theory actually discusses the principle of political rights, and its main purpose is to lay a theoretical foundation for the establishment of people's democratic sovereignty. From the content and language words, it is gentle and peaceful.
The Theory of Social Contract was published in April 1762, and the Paris authorities issued an arrest warrant against Rousseau in June of that year. 1789 The French Revolution was not initiated and launched by Rousseau and the social contract theory, but the social contract theory actually played a catalytic role in the rise of the Great Revolution. The theory of social contract is moderate, but the revolution is full of blood.
The establishment of any kind of system, including freedom and democracy that future generations can easily talk about, is always full of thorns, bumps and even blood along the way.
The following are the main points of Social Contract Theory. Let's see why it was burned at the beginning of its birth and the author was wanted:
People are born free, but they are in chains everywhere.
He who thinks he is the master of all things is a slave than all things.
Rousseau believes that in any country, the nature of the government determines the people, and the people will become what the government wants them to be. Therefore, he tried to find a form of government that can put the law above all people and let the government cultivate the most moral, intelligent and enlightened people.
In the process of evolution, human beings have encountered all kinds of difficulties and obstacles, which cannot be solved by one person alone. So, there is a collective. The evolution of the collective is from the family, not the family, but the tribe and then to the country.
What makes this country a whole? Is a combination of its members. Why are its members United? This is because there is an obligation to link them together.
The country is a political unity, and the foundation of a democratic country is the convention of its members (citizens), that is, the social contract.
The social contract of a truly democratic country is a special agreement;
Everyone has an obligation to everyone; In turn, everyone has an obligation to everyone. This is the direct purpose of combining citizens for the country.
Although this social convention unites citizens, it does not allow any individual to enslave citizens (in other words, everyone has dedicated himself to the whole, not any individual). )
The will of the people is order, which is the supreme law. Rousseau called this universal and personalized law sovereignty. Sovereignty is indivisible and non-transferable.
This abstract collective takes legal action. There is an intermediary between the sovereign and the citizens-the government, whose purpose is to make them adapt to each other and take charge of law enforcement and protection of civil and political freedoms.
Because the relationship between the collective and the individual must be regulated by law. Rousseau expounded freedom, equality and law like this:
The purpose of all legislation is for the greatest happiness of all people, which can be summed up in two main goals: equality and freedom.
Laws can be divided into the following categories:
In order to make everything orderly and make public affairs appear in a good form, political law came into being, which can also be called constitution.
The second relationship is the relationship between citizens or between members and the same subject, which produces civil law.
The third relationship between citizens and law, that is, the relationship between disobedience and punishment, is criminal law.
In addition to these three laws, there is the most important one: this law is not engraved on marble or copper watches, but on the hearts of citizens, and only it is the real constitution of the country. It gains new strength every day; When other laws are about to decline and fail, it can regenerate laws or replace them. It can make the people of a country keep the spirit of innovation and unconsciously replace the power of authority with the power of habit. What is said here is public opinion.
Rousseau went into exile at the age of 50 until 1778 died, and the arrest warrant was still not revoked. However, after the victory of the French Revolution, in 1794, the French National Association relocated the coffin and moved Rousseau to the Pantheon in Paris.