Book 1 on Superphysics

Sovereignty Is Inalienable

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The State is instituted for the aim of the common good.

The general will alone can direct the State to this aim.

The clashing of particular interests made the establishment of societies necessary.

Sovereignty Is Inalienable

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Sovereignty is indivisible for the same reason that it is inalienable.

This is because will either is, or is not, general[1].

It is the will either of the body of the people, or only of a part of it. In the first case, the will, when declared, is an act of Sovereignty and constitutes law: in the second, it is merely a particular will, or act of magistracy—at the most a decree.

Whether The General Will Is Fallible

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The general will:

is always right
tends to the public advantage

But it does not follow that the deliberations of the people are always equally correct.

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.

The Limits Of The Sovereign Power

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The State is a moral person whose life is in the union of its members.

The most important of its cares is the care for its own preservation.

It must have a universal and compelling force, in order to move and dispose each part as may be most advantageous to the whole.

Law

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By the social compact we have given the body politic existence and life.

We have now by legislation to give it movement and will.

For the original act by which the body is formed and united still in no respect determines what it ought to do for its preservation.

The Legislator

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A superior intelligence beholding all the passions of men, without experiencing any of them, is needed to discover the rules of society best suited to nations.

This intelligence would have to be wholly unrelated to our nature, while knowing it through and through;

Large Countries are Relatively Weaker

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Nature has set bounds to the stature of a well-made man.

In every body politic there is a maximum strength which it cannot exceed and which it only loses by increasing in size.

The People

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Before putting up a large building, the architect surveys and sounds the site to see if it will bear the weight.

The wise legislator also investigates the fitness of the people before imposing laws.

The People

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A body politic may be measured in 2 ways:

The extent of its territory
Its population

The men make the State. The territory sustains the men.

The Various Systems Of Legislation

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Every system of legislation should aim for the greatest good of all as:

Liberty

This is because all particular dependence means so much force taken from the body of the State.