Critique of Rousseau’s Social Contract, part 13
In this part, we’re covering Book 3, Chapters 9, 10, and 11.
Full show notes here.
Chapter 9 is Rousseau’s assessment of “The Marks of a Good Government,” and as you might expect by this point, it’s vague and not very helpful. He notes that different people might like different styles of government, and then lumps all “goodness” into “population.” Not the best arguments, either.
Chapter 10 doubles down on the self-contradictions, because Rousseau then claims that, although he has earlier argued that larger population makes monarchy more appropriate (and also that monarchy is most appropriate for wealthy States…), that also the consolidation of government into a smaller number of high-level magistrates is a sign that the government is degenerating and will soon die off. His “population” measure is then turned into a “proof” that governments must eventually die. However, as you can see, this is a rather circular argument.
Finally, in Chapter 11, Rousseau talks about the collapse of States, but not in a way that’s helpful to anyone under a tyranny. He believes it is man’s purpose to make States last as long as possible, and since the distinction between good and bad government is so vague, this inevitably leads to bad governments being clung to longer than they ought to.
This video is available on Odysee, YouTube, and BitChute.
Return to the Table of Contents for this series.
References:
My critique of Kropotkin’s The Conquest of Bread
https://marginalnonhermit.com/?page_id=767
The previous part, where Rousseau’s assignment of all traits of government on the axis of “population” is also a problem
https://marginalnonhermit.com/?p=930
Rousseau on the form of government as a function of population
https://marginalnonhermit.com/?p=917
Locke’s distinction between Usurpation and Tyranny
https://marginalnonhermit.com/?p=694
Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
Another Rousseau self-contradiction: earlier he said the State cannot be separated into parts
https://marginalnonhermit.com/?p=854
Intro quote from Lysander Spooner in No Treason No. 6
https://praxeology.net/LS-NT-6.htm
Intro music courtesy Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/music/main-title-just-a-regular-day-123252/