The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction
• The Social Contract Or Principles of Political Right
• Foreword
• Book I
• Chapter I: Subject of the First Book
• Chapter II: The First Societies
• Chapter III: The Right of the Strongest
• Chapter IV: Slavery
• Chapter V: That We Must Always Go Back to a First Convention
• Chapter VI: The Social Compact
• Chapter VII: The Sovereign
• Chapter VIII: The Civil State
• Chapter IX: Real Property
• Book Ii
• Chapter I: That Sovereignty Is Inalienable
• Chapter II: That Sovereignty Is Indivisible
• Chapter III: Whether the General Will Is Fallible
• Chapter IV: The Limits of the Sovereign Power
• Chapter V: The Right of Life and Death
• Chapter VI: Law
• Chapter VII: The Legislator
• Chapter VIII: The People
• Chapter IX: The People ( Continued )
• Chapter X: The People ( Continued )
• Chapter XI: The Various Systems of Legislation
• Chapter XII: The Division of the Laws
• Book Iii
• Chapter I: Government In General
• Chapter II: The Constituent Principle In the Various Forms of Government
• Chapter III: The Division of Governments
• Chapter IV: Democracy
• Chapter V: Aristocracy
• Chapter VI: Monarchy
• Chapter VII: Mixed Governments
• Chapter VIII: That All Forms of Government Do Not Suit All Countries
• Chapter IX: The Marks of a Good Government
• Chapter X: The Abuse of Government and Its Tendency to Degenerate
• Chapter XI: The Death of the Body Politic
• Chapter XII: How the Sovereign Authority Maintains Itself
• Chapter XIII: The Same ( Continued )
• Chapter XIV: The Same ( Continued )
• Chapter XV: Deputies Or Representatives
• Chapter XVI: That the Institution of Government Is Not a Contract
• Chapter XVII: The Institution of Government
• Chapter XVIII: How to Check the Usurpations of Government
• Book Iv
• Chapter I: That the General Will Is Indestructible
• Chapter II: Voting
• Chapter III: Elections
• Chapter IV: The Roman Comitia
• Chapter V: The Tribunate
• Chapter VI: The Dictatorship
• Chapter VII: The Censorship
• Chapter VIII: Civil Religion
• Chapter IX: Conclusion
• A Discourse Which Won the Prize At the Academy of Dijon In 1750, On This Question Proposed By the Academy: Has the Restoration of the Arts and Sciences Had a Purifying Effect Upon Morals ?
• A Discourse On the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences Decipimur Specie Recti. — Horace.
• The First Part
• The Second Part
• A Discourse On a Subject Proposed By the Academy of Dijon: What Is the Origin of Inequality Among Men, and Is It Authorised By Natural Law ?
• A Discourse On Political Economy

CHAPTER XI

the death of the body politic

Such is the natural and inevitable tendency of the best constituted governments. If Sparta and Rome perished, what State can hope to endure for ever? If we would set up a long-lived form of government, let us not even dream of making it eternal. If we are to succeed, we must not attempt the impossible, or flatter ourselves that we are endowing the work of man with a stability of which human conditions do not permit.

The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries in itself the causes of its destruction. But both may have a constitution that is more or less robust and suited to preserve them a longer or a shorter time. The constitution of man is the work of nature; that of the State the work of art. It is not in men’s power to prolong their own lives; but it is for them to prolong as much as possible the life of the State, by giving it the best possible constitution. The best constituted State will have an end; but it will end later than any other, unless some unforeseen accident brings about its untimely destruction.

The life-principle of the body politic lies in the sovereign authority. The legislative power is the heart of the State; the executive power is its brain, which causes the movement of all the parts. The brain may become paralysed and the individual still live. A man may remain an imbecile and live; but as soon as the heart ceases to perform its functions, the animal is dead.

The State subsists by means not of the laws, but of the legislative power. Yesterday’s law is not binding to-day; but silence is taken for tacit consent, and the Sovereign is held to confirm incessantly the laws it does not abrogate as it might. All that it has once declared itself to will it wills always, unless it revokes its declaration.

Why then is so much respect paid to old laws? For this very reason. We must believe that nothing but the excellence of old acts of will can have preserved them so long: if the Sovereign had not recognised them as throughout salutary, it would have revoked them a thousand times. This is why, so far from growing weak, the laws continually gain new strength in any well constituted State; the precedent of antiquity makes them daily more venerable: while wherever the laws grow weak as they become old, this proves that there is no longer a legislative power, and that the State is dead.