Rousseau: Let the People Rule
1749 AD
1749 1749
02.29E48.44N
MISC

DIJON, FRANCE
	"Has the progress of sciences and arts contributed to corrupt or purify morality?" That question, posed in 1749 by the Academy of Dijon, in France, was the opportunity Jean Jacques Rousseau was waiting for, and his answer made him famous.
	Rousseau was born and raised in Geneva, Switzerland, then roamed Europe as a vagabond, eventually settling in Paris, where he tried his hand at the theater, opera, music, and poetry before being inspired by the Academy's challenge to write on social philosophy.
	In his response, "A Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences," Rousseau argued that humanity had been badly harmed by science and the arts. Though his view was not commonly held, the Academy awarded him first prize.
	Rousseau said that people in their natural state are far superior to people in a civilized state. He imagined an early era when people lived in the forest happy and healthy, with no desire for social bonds. Civilization, he said, is a hopeless attempt to find cures for the problems it causes.
	But because civilization had become a fact and a necessity, Rousseau dreamed of a society in which the individual had maximum freedom. It was a radical idea in the age of monarchy when he wrote.
	In "The Social Contract," his most influential and original work, Rousseau imagined a society in which the people ruled completely. If the people made the laws and agreed to abide by them, he said, they would be free. By contrast, in a monarchy -- where the laws are imposed without the people's consent -- people are not be free.
	If this social system sounds familiar, it should. Rousseau's ideas have had a profound impact on the world. The opening words of the United States Constitution, "We the people...," echo his thoughts.
	But Rousseau imagined a society without brakes. His faith in people's goodness as members of a free society was profound, so his imagined society had no restraints on the people's will, such as an independent court system or a president with veto power.
	However, people are not always good, even in a free society, as the world found out with the coming of the French Revolution. Under the French Revolutionary government people were slaughtered by the cartload simply because of their social class.
	But Rousseau's idea of direct rule by the people -- when combined with the restraining influence of governmental departments that are not directly under their control -- has become a major success throughout the world.