Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau’s Social Contract
- Series page
- The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau’s Social Contract
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 “Every Legitimate Government Is Republican”
- 3 What If There Is No Legislator?
- 4 Rousseau’s Republican Citizenship
- 5 Rousseau’s Negative Liberty
- 6 Rousseau’s Ancient Ends of Legislation
- 7 Property and Possession in Rousseau’s Social Contract
- 8 Political Equality among Unequals
- 9 On the Primacy of Peoplehood
- 10 Rousseau on Voting and Electoral Laws
- 11 On the Possibility of a Modern Republic
- 12 Rousseau’s Case against Democracy
- 13 Rousseau’s Dilemma, or “Of Civil Religion”
- 14 Entreating the Political
- 15 Civil Religion and Political Unity
- Bibliography
- Index
- Series page
11 - On the Possibility of a Modern Republic
Rousseau and the Puzzle of the Roman Republic
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2024
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau’s Social Contract
- Series page
- The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau’s Social Contract
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 “Every Legitimate Government Is Republican”
- 3 What If There Is No Legislator?
- 4 Rousseau’s Republican Citizenship
- 5 Rousseau’s Negative Liberty
- 6 Rousseau’s Ancient Ends of Legislation
- 7 Property and Possession in Rousseau’s Social Contract
- 8 Political Equality among Unequals
- 9 On the Primacy of Peoplehood
- 10 Rousseau on Voting and Electoral Laws
- 11 On the Possibility of a Modern Republic
- 12 Rousseau’s Case against Democracy
- 13 Rousseau’s Dilemma, or “Of Civil Religion”
- 14 Entreating the Political
- 15 Civil Religion and Political Unity
- Bibliography
- Index
- Series page
Summary
The structure of the Social Contract presents an intriguing puzzle. While the first three books argue for a republic of free and equal citizens, the fourth book seems to praise the Roman Republic, a state based on military expansion, slavery, class division, and an inegalitarian voting system. I argue that this puzzle can be solved if we understand the fourth book to be making an a fortiori argument in which Rousseau counterintuitively uses the flawed example of the Roman Republic to show the possibility of large republics in modern circumstances.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau's Social Contract , pp. 223 - 251Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024