Question

Who proposed the form of government that was based on a social contract between people and their representatives?
1. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
2. David Hume
3. Montesquieu
4. John Locke

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 1 : Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Social Contract (1762) by Jean Jacques Rousseau:

• Jean Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer.
• His political philosophy influenced the progress of the enlightenment throughout Europe and aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic, and educational thought.
• The Social Contract (1762) by Jean Jacques Rousseau proposed justifications of political association grounded in the newer political requirements of the age.

• Rousseau's work on social contract theory (or Contractarianism), strongly influenced the French Revolution and the development of Liberal, Conservative and Socialist theory.

• The book describes a way to establish a political community in the face of the problems of commercial society.

• 'The Social Contract' was considered as the 'Bible of the French Revolution.'

• Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just who started the Reign of Terror were also inspired by Rousseau's works.