Rousseau notes

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712 -- July 2, 1778) was a French and Geneva-based philosopher, political theorist, writer and musician of the Enlightenment, born in the then independent city of Geneva.
 
I'm a romanticist, author of Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract
 

• Direct Democracy

 

• What matters is what the government does, not what we define it to be

 

• For if the opposition of private interests made necessary the establishment of societies, it is the accord of these same interests that made it possible. It is what these different interests have in common that forms the social bond, and, were there no point of agreement among all these interests, no society could exist.

 

• Rousseau believed that people are born as independent individuals, and are born self-sufficient, neither dependent on others nor in conflict with others.

 

• Rousseau believed that with the development of civilization, the state of individual self-sufficiency was broken, and people inevitably needed to live together. Therefore, people form societies for "historical" reasons, not "speculative" reasons.

 

• Rousseau believed that the formation of society is something that is bound to happen. This process can be random and random, and lead to some bad societies, or it can be reasonable and lead to better societies.

There is no society or state in the initial state of human beings. People have all the natural freedom, including the freedom to do bad things, but they also face various dangers brought by other people's bad things. In this case, people naturally form a group, a society, to ensure personal safety and personal wealth.
 
A common society, then, requires a common contract, which is an abstract concept, and this common concept binds people together to observe the social freedoms under the law.
 
The existence of this contract brings human beings from the state of nature into the state of society. From the instinct state to the moral and "general will" state. Through the conclusion of social contract, human beings go out of the natural state to establish society and government. Therefore, the legitimacy of government is based on the consent of the governed (the people). The sovereign must represent the "public will" rather than a controlling leader.
 
The sovereignty of a country comes from the people
 
Rousseau believed that a perfect society is controlled by the "general will" of the people. In the beginning, every individual seeking a social contract would cede his or her rights and turn them into public power, thus forming a fundamental law (social morality or universal values) with universal binding force, under which the government was born.
 
Only the people themselves have the power to make laws, and the government becomes the enforcer of laws, not the maker of them. When the people are bound by their own laws, the regime must also be bound by them. The power of the government must be exercised within the established legal framework. It must protect the rights and interests of the people, social freedoms and private property.
 
When the government breaks through the legal framework and abuses its power to suppress the public will, it means that "the sovereign has torn up the social contract". Then the public will has the power to change it, to establish again a government that can safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the people.
 
Only agreement can be the basis of all legitimate authority on earth. Government is formed by contract, and power is vested in the people
​The better the system of the state, the more important public matters are in the minds of the citizens than private ones;
 
For the common happiness of the public involves, to a large extent, the personal happiness of each individual. So they don't have to look for special favors.
 
In a well-governed city-state, everyone would rush to the assembly. To publish, discuss and listen to future plans. But under bad government no one is willing to take part. For no one cared what happened at the meeting;
 
It is better to take care of one's own family than to attend such meetings where one has learned that the general will will not prevail. From good law comes good law, from bad law must come worse law.
 
If once people start talking about the country. "What does it matter to me?" they asked. We can tell this country is coming to an end.