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The Concept of the Legislator in Rousseau's Social Contract

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Harvey F. Fireside
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Extract

Rousseau's injection of the human element onto the austere scene of politics drawn in Du Contrat Social comes as a surprise. This element, personified by the legislator in Chapter 7 of Book II, serves two purposes. It dramatizes the political forces in Rousseau's scheme for not the most perfect, but perhaps the best attainable, regime. As the contemporary condition of civic slavery called for radical reform, that is, a regeneration, man must reassure himself that the birth of a good order is possible by delving back to the foundation of government. In doing so man might also learn something about how and why it takes place. The second reason for introducing the legislator relates to the vital threefold functions he performs as the eyes, brain and motive force of the people.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , April 1970 , pp. 191 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1970

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References

1 This “startling variant” is noted by Hendel, Charles W., in Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Moralist (New York, 1934), II, 192Google Scholar.

2 de Jouvenel, Bertrand, in Sovereignty: an Inquiry into the Political Good (Chicago, 1957)Google Scholar, and Power (London, 1948)Google Scholar, pointed out the sociological significance of the distinction between “charismatic” lawgiver, or rex and institutionalized administrator, or dux. Both are, however, given more of a religious, ipecifically Catholic, interpretation than seems warranted.

3 Plato, , Politicus, Skemp, J. B. trans. (New Haven, 1952), §294aGoogle Scholar.

4 Ibid., §295a.

5 Plutarch, , Lives of the Noble Greeks (New York, 1959), pp. 49–58Google Scholar.

6 Machiavelli, Niccolò, Discourses, Walker, Leslie J. trans. (New Haven, 1950), I, 241–2Google Scholar.

7 Figgis, J. N., Studies of Political Thought from Gerson to Grotius (Cambridge, England, 1956), pp. 55 ffGoogle Scholar.