Rousseau’s Political Conception in the Social Contract

Modern people regard the world, nation and relationships among individuals as self-identified perspective, even the evolution of modernity is demonstrated in these relations. Rousseau’s political conception was carried out in the deep thought of these relations; he tried to establish a firm foundation for human beings’ politics and morality. He admitted the existence of universal humanity and morality, but did not believe that people could live in a global city-state with sovereignty. That was to say, he did not think that making universal morality coming true by global city-state, which was a realistic thought concluded through his observation to the world. Although Rousseau rejected globalism, but it didn’t mean he thought that national union could not be the foundation of people’s universal morality. He pointed out that political union should establish its own universal willingness on the base of universal morality, after the formation of society, natural individuals established relations with others, and transferred from social life to social existence. However, the self-love transferred to self-interested love in natural situation, so people must overcome the shortcomings of individual willingness through universal willingness, and realized citizens’ morality and freedom as individuals.

Popular sovereignty was the most famous political theory contribution, which was showed intensively in his the social contract. Rousseau tried to put freedom and sovereignty into a consistent structure, established sovereignty base on individual freedom, and realized the whole people’s freedom under sovereignty. He pointed out that promoting political power to a sacred right in pure secular situation to overcome universal deviation in political society. He assumed an essential theme ---- freedom was the essence of human beings, and constructed logical explanation using natural condition and social contract, and then he found the solution in the aspect of philosophy ---- popular sovereignty, which was a conceptual structure for the combination of people, public willingness, and public interest. Through this structure, Rousseau overcame the conventional sovereignty value that the ruler was out of political union and beyond it, he regarded ruler as an independent person but not out of people, the ruler was the public ego of human beings’ morality; public willingness was different from individual willingness but was from it, which was every citizen’s moral willingness; ruler’s interest was different from individual interest but it was the common interest of the whole people; sovereignty belonged to human beings, ruler acted through the people’s participation, and every citizen used his right by participated in sovereignty; sovereignty was absolute but limited, which was its own logic.

l  The opposition and consistency of freedom and sovereignty

Rousseau’s the social contract was attempted to solve the intensive relationship between people’s natural freedom and realistic constraint. The chains were from law, material and psychological dependence. While he focused on the chain caused by law, by political rule, which was sovereignty. Rousseau thought that the principle of political life was from authority of sovereignty. He did not rely on a super god, but advocated to establish a republic nation on the base of individual free willingness.

l  The conceptual structure of popular sovereignty

Rousseau’s popular sovereignty was the combination of people, public willingness and public interest, if we used a formula to express, that was:

1, People = rulers

2, Sovereignty = public willingness

3, Public willingness = public interest

l  Can popular sovereignty and individual freedom be harmonious?

It was an important value to discriminate the rights of citizens and ruler; he thought the rights were limited, and the principle to decide the limitation was equality, beyond which people respected contract not because they were obeying somebody, but just as free as obeying themselves. Rousseau did not admit the justice of delegacy, because he thought that way would destroy universality apart from willingness could not be represented.

l  The existence of god

The fundamental difficult problem was god’s death in modern politics, and how to establish legal order in the human world. However, in Rousseau’s system, god was not dead, and the god was latent controlling his whole conception of sovereignty and supporting his political system. This was the final origin for his sovereignty thought, and it was destined that Rousseau’s utopia was hard to be the blueprint for secular world politics.