3. Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it. Social contract theory says a government is only allowed to govern with the permission of the governed. Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.

How to cite “The social contract” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1. APA. Rousseau, J. -J. (2004). The social contract. Penguin Books. Copy citation.
2. Chicago. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 2004. The Social Contract. Penguin Great Ideas. Harlow, England: Penguin Books. Copy citation.
3. MLA. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract. Penguin Books, 2004. Copy citation.

The agreement with which a person enters into civil society. The contract essentially binds people into a community that exists for mutual preservation. Rousseau believes that only by entering into the social contract can we become fully human. …

Social contract theory says that people live together in society in accordance with an agreement that establishes moral and political rules of behavior. Some people believe that if we live according to a social contract, we can live morally by our own choice and not because a divine being requires it.

In simple terms, Locke’s social contract theory says: government was created through the consent of the people to be ruled by the majority, “(unless they explicitly agree on some number greater than the majority),” and that every man once they are of age has the right to either continue under the government they were …

Rousseau

The main idea of Rousseau’s famous work ‘Social Contract’ was each member would have one vote which would have one value each. This was one of the democratic principles put forward by philosophers like Rousseau in his book The Social Contract.

Summary Summary. With the famous phrase, “man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains,” Rousseau asserts that modern states repress the physical freedom that is our birthright, and do nothing to secure the civil freedom for the sake of which we enter into civil society.

Modern man, Rousseau argues, is the victim of a divided subjectivity, spreading disorder and unhappiness while convinced that he’s acting in his own interests. This key here is that man in the state of nature lacks individuation and thereby any means to distinguish his individual needs from those of his community.

For Rousseau, a society may legitimately coerce its people only when they agree to be ruled by that society. This is what the quote means–it is saying that people in societies have these rules that govern them and limit their freedom.