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THAT WE MUST ALWAYS GO BACK TO AN ORIGINAL COMPACT · Resulting relationship will ever be that of Master and Slave, never of People and Ruler · The body of men so controlled may be an agglomeration; it is not an association · We consider the act by which a People chooses their king, it were well if we considered the act by which a People is constituted as such · What right have the hundred who desire a master to vote for the tem who do not? OF THE SOCIAL PACT · “Some form off association must be found as a result of which the whole strength of the community will be enlisted for the protection of the person and property of each constituent member, in such a way that each, when united to his fellows, renders obedience to his own will, and remains as free as he was before.” · That is the basic problem of which the Social Contract provides the solution · Broken down to: “each of us contributes to the group his person and the powers which he wields as a person under the supreme direction of the general will, and we receive into the body politic each individual as forming an indivisible part of the whole.” · The public person thus formed by the union of individuals was known in the old days as a City, but now as the Republic or Body Politic · Members are the State · Constituent associates are The People OF THE SOVEREIGN · Each individual comprising the former contracts, so to speak, with himself and has a twofold function · As a member of the sovereign people he owes a duty to each of his neighbors, and, as a Citizen, to the sovereign people as a whole · There is a great difference between a man’s duty to himself and to a whole of which he forms a part · Here it should be pointed out that a public decision which can enjoin obedience on all subjects to their Sovereign, by reason of the double aspect under which each is seen, cannot, ion the contrary, bind the sovereign in his dealings with himself · This does not mean that the body politic is unable to enter into engagements with some other Power · It may not alienate any portion of itself, nor make submission to any other sovereign · Both duty and interest, oblige the two contracting parties to render one another mutual assistance · Consequently, the sovereign power need give no guarantee to its subjects, since it is impossible that the body should wish to injure all its members · There can be no guarantee that the subject will observe his duty to the sovereign unless means are found to ensure his loyalty · Regarding the moral entity constituting the State as a rational abstraction because it is not a man, he might enjoy his rights a s a citizen without, at the same time, fulfilling his duties as a subject, and the resultant injustice might grow until it is brought to ruin upon the whole body politic · Freedom being that condition which, by giving each citizen to his country, guarantees him from all personal dependence and is the foundation upon which the whole political machine rests, and supplies the power which works it OF THE CIVIL STATE · It substitutes justice for instinct in his behavior, and gives to his actions a moral basis which formerly was lacking · He must now consult his reason and not merely respond to the promptings of desire · What a man loses as a result of the Social Contract is his natural liberty and his unqualified right to lay hands on all that tempts him, provided only that he can compass its possession · What he gains is civil liberty and the ownership of what belongs to him · For to be subject to appetite is to be a slave, while to obey the laws laid down by society is to be free OF REAL PROPERTY · The right of “first occupancy” becomes a genuine right only after the right of property has been established · Limits him to that and excludes him from all others · There must be not one already there · A man must occupy only so much as is necessary · He must take possession or it, not by empty ceremony, but by virtue of his intention to work and to cultivate it · Thus, by controlling the land, they can be very sure of controlling its inhabitants · As owners their right are respected by their fellow citizens and are maintained by the united strength of the community against any outside attack · They have acquired all that they have surrendered · However unequal they may be in bodily strength or in intellectual gifts, they become equal in the eyes of the law, and as a result of the compact into which they have entered
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