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
Rousseau explains that the censor is the office that measures public opinion and applies it to relevant cases. Public opinion matters because it reflects people’s moral values, and both morality and public opinion can be shaped by good legislation. Thus, censors “may be useful in preserving morals, but never in restoring morals” after they are lost. They ensure that wise beliefs are not “corrupted” and help push the nation’s culture forward. The Romans and Greeks expertly used censors to stop undesirable behavior through shame more effectively than the law could have through punishment—for instance, after “certain drunkards […] defiled the tribunal,” the censors publicly declared that those drunkards had “permission by public edict to be filthy.”
Like his defense of dictatorship, Rousseau’s praise for censorship is likely to be both controversial and misunderstood today. In fact, he also borrows this example directly from the example of the Roman Republic, in which the “censor” was a magistrate who both conducted the census and regulated the moral values of the public. This meant that the censor could publicly castigate people and strip them of their titles. These offices are separate now, but Rousseau makes it clear why they were united into a single post in Rome: the person who surveyed the population for the census could get an idea of where the public’s moral values stood, and then use their powers as the censor to modify individuals’ expression of that morality. His belief in the censor’s importance again shows how a nation’s public moral culture helps determine its citizens’ attitudes and dedication toward the nation. In turn, since the nation’s health and longevity rely on citizens’ active participation in lawmaking, a strong moral culture can make a state more successful. However, Rousseau’s defense of censorship also raises questions about whether he may consider moral culture more important than the basic freedoms citizens are supposed to retain when they agree to the social contract.
Themes
