Rousseau Law And The Sovereignty Of The People

Examines Rousseau's contribution as a constitutionalist and builder of institutions, relating his major ideas to twenty-first century debates.

A translation of Joseph De Maistre's critique of Rousseau providing a historical forum for understanding the intellectual qualities of the counter-revolution from 1792 to 1797. Obviously, De Maistre's arguments were not successful, but they are valuable in terms of exploring Rousseau's ideologies, in particular his belief in the natural goodness of man and popular sovereignty. Although the two men are usually seen as polar opposites, De Maistre's critique reveals ambiguities that make him seem surprisingly more similar than he would have admitted. Lebrun (history, U. of Manitoba) provides a qualitative introduction. Canadian card order number C95-900-929-9. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

After an old university friend and fellow archeologist's murdered, forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway travels to Lancashire to examine the bones he found, which reveal a shocking fact about King Arthur, and discovers a campus living in fear of a sinister right-wing group called the White Hand.

Long hailed as one of the most original, controversial, and influential works of modern political theory, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's On the Social Contract or Principles of Political Right (1762) sets out to address an apparently insoluble difficulty: how can we organize a political community so as to guarantee its members the complete physical and emotional freedom given to them by nature, while at the same time ensuring peaceful order and cooperation within the state. How can we "find a form of association which defends and protects with full communal force the person and the possessions of each member and in which each person, by uniting with all, nevertheless obeys only himself and remains as freeas before."Rousseau's solution to this problem offers a vision of a republican constitution in which the citizens are free because, as rational beings, they choose to live in a state where they all have an equal share in the sovereign power and are all equally subject to the laws established by the general will of all. No matter what the form of government, in order to be legitimate, it must be subject to the sovereignty of the people.On the Social Contract is justly famous as a collectivist response to the more individualistic liberalism of Hobbes and Locke. For Rousseau true freedom in the modern state can only be realized if the citizens, as rational individuals, subordinate their selfish personal desires to the laws enacted by the general will of all--citizens, he states in one of his best known and most paradoxical sayings "must be forced to be free." Only then can they realize their full potential as free moral beings.

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ... VII POPULAR AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY (CONTINUED) It is now necessary to observe more closely the nature of the sovereignty, the location of which was the centre of so much discussion during this period. At the opening of the century an impetus toward a stronger conception of sovereignty was given in the Rheinbund Act of 1806, which recognized the "plenitude de la souverainete"1 to certain states which had up to this time possessed only the so-called Landshoheit nominally at least under the sovereignty of the Emperor. The rights included under sovereignty were mentioned in the Act as legislation, supreme jurisdiction, police power, conscription, and the taxing power.2 By the newly created states their souverainete was interpreted in the broadest sense of the term, externally and internally, as indicated by the almost immediate alterations made in their fundamental laws. The old " estates" were brushed aside, as in Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Hesse; and constitutions granted, as in Westphalia, 1807, and Bavaria, 1808.3 The rulers also gave up the former feudal rights held by one in the territory of another, so far at least as relations of public law were concerned. The new sovereignty proved to be also a barrier against the formation of a close union between the German States in 1814-15, and for some time after. 1 See G. Meyer, Staatsrecht, sec. 36. 'Rhein-Bund-Acte, Art. 26-27. "Legislation, jurisdiction supreme, haute police, conscription militaire ou recrutement et impot" were the " droits essentielement inherens a la souverainete." The "mediatized" territories retained their "propriete patrimoniale et privet," and their "droits seigneuriaux et ftodaux."--Ibid., sec. 27. 8...

The Social Contract & Discourses By Jean Jacques Rousseau Edited By Ernest Rhys Philosophy and Theology Rousseau's Social Contract Translated With Introduction BY G. D. H. Cole Of The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right (Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique; 1762) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a book in which Rousseau theorized about the best way to establish a political community in the face of the problems of commercial society, which he had already identified in his Discourse on Inequality (1754). The Social Contract helped inspire political reforms or revolutions in Europe, especially in France. The Social Contract argued against the idea that monarchs were divinely empowered to legislate; as Rousseau asserts, only the people, who are sovereign, have that all-powerful right. The stated aim of The Social Contract is to determine whether there can be a legitimate political authority, since people's interactions he saw at his time seemed to put them in a state far worse than the good one they were at the state of nature, even though living in isolation. In this desired social contract, everyone will be free because they all forfeit the same amount of rights and impose the same duties on all. Rousseau argues that it is illogical for a man to surrender his freedom for slavery; thus, the participants must have a right to choose the laws under which they live. Although the contract imposes new laws, including those safeguarding and regulating property, a person can exit it at any time (except in a time of need, for this is desertion), and is again as free as when he was born. Rousseau posits that the political aspects of a society should be divided into two parts. First, there must be a sovereign consisting of the whole population, women included, that represents the general will and is the legislative power within the state. The second division is that of the government, being distinct from the sovereign. This division is necessary because the sovereign cannot deal with particular matters like applications of the law. Doing so would undermine its generality, and therefore damage its legitimacy. Thus, government must remain a separate institution from the sovereign body. When the government exceeds the boundaries set in place by the people, it is the mission of the people to abolish such government, and begin anew.