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Jean Jacques Rousseu s The Social Contract

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Finally, each man, in giving himself to all, gives himself to nobody; and as there


is no associate over whom he does not acquire the same right as he yields others


over himself, he gains an equivalent for everything he loses, and an increase of


force for the preservation of what he has. the social compact reduces itself


to the following terms: Each of us puts his person and all his power in common


under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity,


we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.


In further explaining the beneficial handing over of individual rights to society,

Rousseau suggests (Book I, Chapter 7) that the legitimate exercise of social power by the

collective will is the only possible way for the individual to guarantee that his own will is

expressed in society, because the collective power ensures that:

whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the


whole body. This means nothing less than that he will be forced to be free; for this


is the condition which, by giving each citizen to his country, secures