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