USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Jean-Jacques Rousseau, born in Geneva in 1712, was one of the 18th century’s most important political thinkers. His work focussed on the relationship between human society and the individual, and contributed to the ideas that would lead eventually to the French Revolution.

Detailed explanation-2: -However, social contract theory is rightly associated with modern moral and political theory and is given its first full exposition and defense by Thomas Hobbes.

Detailed explanation-3: -In conclusion, Rousseau is in fact both a critic and an advocate of social contract theory. Throughout his work, he considers society to have corrupted mankind and most of all, he rejects Hobbes’ idea of an absolute Leviathan.

Detailed explanation-4: -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. Rousseau had in mind a democracy on a small scale, a city-state like his native Geneva.