Rousseau_contrat-social

happiness furnishes a greater proportion of that of each individual, so
that there is less for him to seek in particular cares. In a
well-ordered city every man flies to the assemblies: under a bad
government no one cares to stir a step to get to them, because no one is
interested in what happens there, because it is foreseen that the
general will will not prevail, and lastly because domestic cares are
all-absorbing. Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones
bring about worse. As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State
What does it matter to me? the State may be given up for lost.
The lukewarmness of patriotism, the activity of private interest, the
vastness of States, conquest and the abuse of government suggested the
method of having deputies or representatives of the people in the
national assemblies. These are what, in some countries, men have
presumed to call the Third Estate. Thus the individual interest of two
orders is put first and second; the public interest occupies only the
third place.
Sovereignty, for the same reason as makes it inalienable, cannot be
represented; it lies essentially in the general will, and will does not
admit of representation: it is either the same, or other; there is no
intermediate possibility. The deputies of the people, therefore, are not
and cannot be its representatives: they are merely its stewards, and can
carry through no definitive acts. Every law the people has not ratified
in person is null and void -- is, in fact, not a law. The people of
England regards itself as free; but it is grossly mistaken; it is free
only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are
elected, slavery overtakes it, and it is nothing. The use it makes of
the short moments of liberty it enjoys shows indeed that it deserves to
lose them.
The idea of representation is modern; it comes to us from feudal
government, from that iniquitous and absurd system which degrades
humanity and dishonours the name of man. In ancient republics and even
in monarchies, the people never had representatives; the word itself was
unknown. It is very singular that in Rome, where the tribunes were so
sacrosanct, it was never even imagined that they could usurp the
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