Sovereignty Belongs to the People and the Emperor is the State (Interpreting Rousseau's "The Social Contract")

Author: Li Ping Ou
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-09-01
Features: The absolute monarch of France, Louis XIV, said, "L'état, c'est moi" (I am the state), while the people who believed in Rousseau's doctrine said, "We are the state." Sovereignty belongs to the people, and only the people are the true masters of the state. This truth, as clear as daylight, was only awakened when The Social Contract was published in 1762, bringing people out of the fog of the divine right of kings that had shrouded them for thousands of years. It was not until more than a hundred years later that this book was introduced to China and translated as The Theory of the Social Contract. The translator deeply sighed and lamented, "How cruel it is for Heaven to withhold The Theory of the Social Contract from our China!" This Interpretation provides a detailed analysis of The Social Contract from multiple perspectives, embodying the author's insights and experiences in studying Rousseau over nearly half a century.