itizens. I think that the more knowledge we have the more ability we have to help society. Rousseau’s political theory reached out beyond the generic man presented before by many others and revealed a more emotional and passionate individual.In the mind of Rousseau, society went wrong when it became society. While Locke tries to protect private property, he condemns it as the cause for the end of natural equality. He felt that man was better before he entered the hierarchal world and became unequal. He commented: “…I should say that so long as a people is compelled to obey and does obey, it does well; but that so soon as it can shake off the yoke and does shake it off, it does better.” This is anarchy! Rousseau, like Locke, believed that man is basically good. In the natural state, Rousseau felt that man could be virtuous. He did not believe in the same form of government as Machiavelli, Hobbes, or Locke. He felt that men should give up themselves to the good of the community in a social contract. Rousseau’s ideal state would be a small community. It seems accurate that a small state would be better because it would know the needs of its citizens. Like Locke, he felt that the duty of the state was to secure freedom, however Rousseau’s idea of freedom differs from Locke’s. Rousseau felt that true freedom lied in the will of the majority. In order to keep your freedom you must agree with the will of the majority, replacing justice with instinct. He felt that if someone did not agree with the majority that it was the state’s job to make them agree. More or less, Rousseau believed in utopia – where every man was equal and was given the same things and treated the same and if he was not he needed to be reformed so that he could be. Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau contributed to modern political theory placing the individual as the center of importance. All tried to find a polit...
