Role of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in French Revolution

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712– 1778) was born in Geneva, Switzerland, where all adult male citizens could vote for a representative government. This adult franchise was a major influence on his works. Rousseau travelled in France and Italy, educating himself. In one of his earliest writings, he wrote that man was naturally good and was corrupted by society. His ideas quickly made him a celebrity in the French salons where artists, scientists, and writers gathered to discuss the latest ideas.

In 1762, he published his most important work on political theory, The Social Contract. His opening line is still striking today: “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” The Social Contract helped inspire political reforms or revolutions in Europe, especially in France. The Social Contract argued against the idea that monarchs were divinely empowered to legislate. Rousseau asserted that only the people, who are sovereign, have that all-powerful right.

According to him, the problem in the state of nature was to find a way to protect everyone’s life, liberty, and property while each person remained free. He gave a solution to this problem and asked the people to enter into a social contract. They would give up all their rights, not to a king, but to “the whole community,” all the people. Then, he called all the people the “sovereign,” a term so far used only for the king.  He further writes that the people then exercise their “general will” to make laws for the “public good.” However, Rousseau argued that the general will of the people could not be decided by elected representatives. He believed in a direct democracy in which everyone voted to express the general will and to make the laws of the land. Thus, Rousseau had in mind a democracy on a small scale, a city-state like his native Geneva.

In Rousseau’s democracy, anyone who disobeyed the general will of the people “will be forced to be free.” He believed that citizens must obey the laws or be forced to do so as long as they remained a resident of the state. This is a “civil state,” where security, justice, liberty, and property are protected and enjoyed by all.

According to Rousseau, all political power must reside with the people, exercising their general will. There can be no separation of powers, as Montesquieu proposed. The people, meeting together, will deliberate individually on laws and then by majority vote find the general will.

Rousseau’s view of the general will was later embodied in the words “We the People”—which are found at the beginning of the U.S. Constitution.

However, the above description leads us to conclude that the ideas of Rousseau were rather vague on how his democracy would work, there would be some sort of Government which could be entrusted with administering the general will. But it would be composed of “mere officials” who got their orders from the people.

In fact, Rousseau’s political philosophy was so vague that it can hardly be said to point in any specific direction. His ideals were suitable for a small community with a prevailingly rural economy, loosely federated with other similar communities. It was not suitable for a bigger country like France or United States of America. Yet, his ideals were suitable for the purpose of the Radical democratic parties of France. Robespierre and the Jacobins owed most to him for his theory of popular sovereignty and his denial of any vested right in any other body then the people themselves.

On the basis of his ideals and its immense influence on French Revolution, Rousseau’s Social Contract, is considered the Bible of the French Revolution.