Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Social Contract, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Human Freedom and Society
Sovereignty, Citizenship, and Direct Democracy
Government and the Separation of Powers
National Longevity and Moral Virtue
Summary
Analysis
Before “laying down good laws,” lawgivers must ensure that the people will support those laws. Unfortunately, “once customs are established and prejudices rooted,” they are difficult to change, but it is still possible—through revolutions, for example. But Rousseau thinks that a nation only gets one try at organizing into society: if it fails, “the state falls apart” and people need “a master, not a liberator.” Nations grow ready for laws at different paces, and rulers must be aware of this. Rousseau uses the Russian monarch Peter the Great as an example of a leader who tried to civilize his people before they were ready, and says that Russia’s impending demise is evidence of his failure.
Rousseau seems to be contradicting himself: if the lawgiver only brings the community together, why would the lawgiver have to “lay[] down good laws?” In fact, he is distinguishing between the specific pieces of legislation that a sovereign people will pass to rule themselves and the original law—like a constitution, or the terms of a social contract—that turns people into a sovereign in the first place. He also suggests that states have to be formed at the correct time in a people’s development into a community and only get one shot at establishing a republic, but history clearly shows that many nations (including France itself) have gone through multiple revolutions and stages of democracy. This tension may be resolved if each attempt at democracy creates a new “people,” or a new community identity, which means that after a failed state is brought to order by an authoritarian “master,” it could then form a new communal identity and try again to create a republic. However, it is difficult to tell if this is precisely what Rousseau means. Finally, the rootedness of customs and prejudices is a double-edged sword: while this makes it difficult for an unsuccessful society to correct itself, it also illustrates how a well-organized society can strengthen its institutions and moral values over time.
Themes
