THE LAW OF INEQUALITIES, AS INSTITUTED IN THE GOVERNMENT

Jean Jacques Rousseau is French philosopher, writer and political theorist whose treatises inspired the leaders of the French Revolution and the Romantic generation. Rousseau was a classical liberal and he accepted the idea of government by contract. He believes that society is based upon some implicit contract, while the contract “prior state of nature”. The contract implies that the ruler is the people’s agent, not their master. Rousseau believed that people are not social beings by nature. He stated that people, living in a natural condition, isolated and without language, are kind and without motive or impulse to hurt one another. However, once they live together in society, people become evil. Society corrupts individuals by bringing out their inclination toward aggression and selfishness. Rousseau believed that laws should express the general will of the people. Rousseau saw the contract as one in which citizens gave up the freedom of the state of nature to submit their individual wills to the general will. Any kind of government could be considered legitimate, provided that social organization was by common consent. He opened men's eyes to the beauties of nature, and he made liberty an object of almost universal aspiration.

In an economically driven world, governments are not doomed to extinction. However, according to Rousseau “Modernization, made man abandon the government (social contract) and the civil society which lead to moral corruption and materialism.” According to Rousseau, all forms of government would eventually tend to decline. The degeneration could be restrained only through the control of moral standards and the elimination of special interest groups. The purpose by which the “social contract” is created for is not being put forward, instead governments are being use to “camouflage” the interest of the few, since it is being used to protect the interest of the few through the laws which are created. The “social contract” is created for everyone, but in reality it’s vested in the interest of the few who have become the pillars of the institution. Nowadays, most laws are created to safeguard the properties, rights and interest of the elites, making them richer and powerful. Even though the “general will” is still instituted in these laws, the purpose is not being followed or practice. The laws in the government may protect everyone, but in reality, it is fossilizing the very inequalities that private property has. In other words, the government, which claims in the interest of everyone else, is really in the interest of the few who have become stronger and richer as a result of private property. In an economically driven world, governments are doomed to extinction, but it calls for expansion, change and maintenance. As long, as there is greed for power and gold, conflict will always arise in each society.

Source:

1. Curtis, Michael (1976) The Great Political Theories V2. Haper Collins.

2. Santiago, Miriam Deffennsor (2003) History of Philosophy: The Great Political Thinkers (Philosphy Series, Vol 1) Central Professional Books, Inc: Quezon City

3. (1999) Ebbenstein, Alan O. Great Political Thinkers: From Plato to the Present.

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