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
When the people actually assemble in their capacity as the sovereign, the government or executive branch is momentarily invalid (because it is only ever an expression of the fundamentally superior sovereign power). This tends to scare the magistrates that run the government, and when they try to seize control from the people, they often destroy the very republic.
Specifically, Rousseau clarifies, the people’s meetings also serve to remind the government’s magistrates that they are employees of the people—after all, this is why government workers are now called “civil servants.” Because the sovereign represents the general will and the government is merely hired to enforce this will, whenever the people meet, the general will is being renegotiated, so while the state’s legitimacy as a whole is affirmed, the government’s legitimacy as an agent of the general will is temporarily suspended.
Themes
