Exploring Rousseau's Social Contract and Its Impact on Governance

This essay provides an analysis of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract, exploring its core concepts and significance. It begins by defining the social contract as a concept where the government derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed. The essay highlights Rousseau's focus on ensuring the common will is articulated within government and his advocacy for democratic principles. It then examines the historical context, noting the influence of the social contract on American history, particularly in the development of the United States Constitution and its impact on movements for human rights, Native American rights, and women's civil rights. The essay emphasizes the principle of popular sovereignty and the role of the government in serving the public will. The essay touches on the impact of the social contract theory in the context of the American revolution and its continued relevance in contemporary society.

Running head: ROUSSEAU’S SOCIAL CONTRACT
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ROUSSEAU'S SOCIAL CONTRACT
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Introduction
The word "social contract" talks about the suggestions that a state exists to continue
serving the will of its citizens, who act as the basis of every political power benefited by that
particular state. Therefore, the public might decide to offer or hold back this authority.
Rousseau’s main argument is that the government gets its right in existing and governing by “the
approval of those governed.” Rousseau talks about various kinds of government that might not
seem very self-governing to the modern eyes, however, his center of attention was forever on
understanding how to make sure that the common will of every person might be articulated
within their government. Additionally, he at all times intended to understand how to ensure that
society is democratic as probable. Rousseau favorably cites the instance of the Roman
democracy comitia to demonstrate that still large states made of many citizens might have
assemblies of every citizen.
Rousseau theorized about the best way to come up with a political community in spite of
the challenges of commercial society. Commercial society involved discourse of inequality
which came up because of private property ownership. The social contract is one of the single
leading affirmations of the natural human rights in the account of Western political thinking. It
brought in fresh as well as influential means, the idea of the “approval of those governed” as well
as the absolute authority of the public, rather than the authority of the country or the leaders. It is
recognized frequently like an opening text within the improvement of the current ideology of the
human rights bringing about modern conception of a democratic system.
As with various philosophical thoughts following the political assumption, this social
contract has stimulated multiple forms and understandings and has been brought into mind by

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several diverse groups all through American history. Additionally, in revolutionary-era the
Americans supported social contract assumption more than the British Tory ideas of patriarchal
rule and relied on this social contract like support for a revolution. Throughout the antebellum as
well as Civil War eras, social contract assumption was employed by every side. More lately,
historians have connected social contract assumptions to essential social movements like those
for the Native American privileges, human rights, immigration transformation, and women's
civil rights.
The suggestion of this social contract has a significant effect on America history. The
United State Constitution begins with these three terms, "We the people...," symbolizing this
suggestion of popular self-government at the start of this leading text. From this opinion, the
government set up by the free will of the people is necessary to serve the public, who eventually
have independence, or supreme authority, to maintain or bring down that government in a
country. The foundation of the concepts in the social contract democracy n governments and
constitutions.