Editing Social contract (section)

===Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ''Du Contrat social'' (1762)===
[[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] (1712–1778), in his influential 1762 treatise ''[[The Social Contract]]'', outlined a different version of social-contract theory, as the foundations of society based on the sovereignty of the "[[general will]]".

Rousseau's political theory differs in important ways from that of Locke and Hobbes. Rousseau's collectivist conception is most evident in his development of the "luminous conception" (which he credited to [[Denis Diderot]]) of the "[[general will]]". Summarised, the "[[general will]]" is the power of all the citizens' collective interest—not to be confused with their individual interests.

Although Rousseau wrote that the British were perhaps at the time the freest people on earth, he did not approve of their representative government, nor any form of representative government. Rousseau believed that society was only legitimate when the sovereign (i.e. the "[[general will]]") were the sole [[legislator]]s. He also stated that the individual must accept "the total alienation to the whole community of each associate with all his rights".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rousseau|first=Jean-Jacques|title=The social contract; and, the first and second discourses / Jean-Jacques Rousseau; edited and with an introduction by Susan Dunn; with essays by Gita May [and others].|publisher=New Haven: Yale University Press|year=2002|isbn=9780300129434|location=|pages=163}}</ref> In short, Rousseau meant that in order for the social contract to work, individuals ''must'' forfeit their rights to the whole so that such conditions were "equal for all".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rousseau|first=Jean-Jacques|title=The social contract ; and, the first and second discourses / Jean-Jacques Rousseau; edited and with an introduction by Susan Dunn; with essays by Gita May [and others].|publisher=New Haven : Yale University Press|year=2002|isbn=9780300129434|location=|pages=163}}</ref>{{blockquote|[The social contract] can be reduced to the following terms: ''Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will; and in a body, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.''<ref>Jean-Jacques Rousseau, ''Œuvres complètes'', ed.&nbsp;B.&nbsp;Gagnebin and M.&nbsp;Raymond (Paris, 1959–95), III, 361; ''The Collected Writings of Rousseau'', ed.&nbsp;C.&nbsp;Kelley and R.&nbsp;Masters (Hanover, 1990–), IV, 139.</ref>}}

Rousseau's striking phrase that man must "be forced to be free"<ref>'' Oeuvres complètes'', III, 364; ''The Collected Writings of Rousseau'', IV, 141.</ref> should be understood{{according to whom|date=May 2019}} this way: since the indivisible and inalienable popular sovereignty decides what is good for the whole, if an individual rejects this "civil liberty"<ref name="Rousseau 2002 167">{{Cite book|last=Rousseau|first=Jean-Jacques|title=The social contract ; and, the first and second discourses / Jean-Jacques Rousseau ; edited and with an introduction by Susan Dunn ; with essays by Gita May [and others].|publisher=New Haven : Yale University Press|year=2002|isbn=9780300129434|location=|pages=167}}</ref> in place of "natural liberty"<ref name="Rousseau 2002 167"/> and self interest, disobeying the law, he will be forced to listen to what was decided when the people acted as a collective (as [[citizen]]s). Thus the law, inasmuch as it is created by the people acting as a body, is not a limitation of individual freedom, but rather its expression. The individual, as a citizen, explicitly agreed to be constrained if, as a private individual, he did not respect his own will as formulated in the general will.

Because laws represent the restraint of "natural liberty",<ref name="Rousseau 2002 167"/> they represent the leap made from humans in the state of nature into civil society. In this sense, the law is a civilizing force. Therefore, Rousseau believed that the laws that govern a people help to mould their character.

Rousseau also analyses the social contract in terms of [[risk]] management,<ref>
{{cite book
| last1 = Gourevitch
| first1 = Victor
| translator1-last = Gourevitch
| translator1-first = Victor
| year = 1997
| chapter = Of the Social Contract
| editor1-last = Gourevitch
| editor1-first = Victor
| title = The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6L9tDwAAQBAJ
| series = Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
| edition = 2
| location = Cambridge
| publisher = Cambridge University Press
| publication-date = 2018
| page = 66
| isbn = 9781107150812
| access-date = 2019-05-11
| quote = Is it not nevertheless a gain to risk for the sake of what makes for our security just a portion of what we would have to risk for our own sakes as soon as we are deprived of it?
}}
</ref>
thus suggesting the origins of the state as a form of mutual [[insurance]].