PHIL 2345 Rousseau Social Contract, Book 4

Book 3: Final Points Assemblies: suspend executive power (3.14) –Gov’t/Executive may try to suspend assemblies; Sovereign can make, change, revoke ANY law Institution of gov’t = law, not a contract (3.16, 3.18) –Executive works for the people Hereditary monarchy = –‘provisional form’ of government that can be abolished (3.18.2) Social pact can be revoked like any other law (3.18.9).

The sound state ‘Upright and simple men are difficult to deceive…not taken in by sham’ Troops of peasants attending to affairs of state under an oak tree and always acting wisely Cromwell would have been condemned to hard labor at Berne (Switzerland)—why?

Indestructibility of GW (4.1) Social knot loosens (as state grows) Particular interests increase; each ‘evades’ the GW in himself patriotism decreases GW? Pure, unalterable, constant—it’s always there even when State is in ruins!

Elections (4.3) ‘complex acts’ 2 types: ‘by choice or by lot’ –‘choice’ = election –selection by lot (like jury service) Election by lot = democratic; rejects Montesquieu’ reasons (Spirit of the Laws, II.11) Few inconveniences in ‘a genuine Democracy’ But ‘there is no true Democracy’ Choice for positions requiring talent Lot for those requiring good sense Resembles Athenian system.

Secret ballots (4.4.35) Right to vote: ‘a right of which nothing can deprive citizens’ (4.1.7) Before: ‘each was ashamed to cast his vote publicly for an unjust opinion or an unworthy candidate’; Secret ballot sign of corruption in ancient Roman republic Condemned by Cicero Actually more such reforms needed: –‘Just as the regimen of healthy people is not suited to the sick, one must not try to govern a corrupt people by the same Laws as those that suit a good people’ (4.4.36).

Question Also, in Ch. 4, Rousseau disagrees with Cicero's opinion about the changes of the voting was responsible for the ruin of the Republic. Rousseau thought the loss of state was hastened because not enough changes were made. He thought that the Laws for healthy people is not suitable for corrupt people. However, Rousseau stated that only citizens or general will can establish the laws, will the corrupt people establish the laws suitable for corrupt people to guide them? Will the Laws established by the corrupt people can prevent the state, e.g. the Roman Republic from corruption?

Roman Comitia (4.4) Complicated system of checks & balances Rome’s assemblies—200,000 men: –‘the fate of Europe may be said to have been determined in its assemblies’ (4.4.24). 6 classes; 193 centuries –6 th class excluded from military service: ‘one had to have a hearth in order to obtain the right to defend it’ (4.4.17) Time to be informed about candidates (4.4.31) Classes interposed; set in tension against each other: –Tribunes convened comitiae, but were themselves patrician; –Senators had to obey laws of comitiae, but could not vote on them: ‘less free than the last of Citizens’ (4.4.32)

Civil Religion (4.8) Gov’t was first theocratic No separation of religion from state—unthinkable in ancient times –Jesus separates theological from political [8] –2 Kingdoms: one of this world, one of the next Note on early-moderns: –Hobbes: one official, state religion –Bayle: no religion; Warburton: Christianity best –Locke: toleration for all sects; religion is no business of state –U.S. Constitution: Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion.

Civil Religion (4.8), cont. Christianity transformed from other- worldly to this-worldly The Pope = head of state Holy Roman Emperor wanted to appoint bishops (investiture conflict)

Civil Religion (4.8), cont Religion of Man –The Gospel, spirituality: saintly, sublime –No relation to body politic Religion of the Priest: ancient Two chiefs, two fatherlands, two sets of laws: Christianity –Creates divided loyalties –Wholly spiritual religion Christian values incompatible w/ values of citizen –Bravery in war –Ability to thwart bad apples like Cromwell –Preaches servitude and dependence (4.8.28) Society of true Christians is not human (4.8.22) ‘Christian Republic’ is a contradiction in terms.

So what kind of religion Does Rousseau envision for the state?