# Government in General explained — The Social Contract > Chapter companion for The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. ## What happens Rousseau defines government as an intermediate body between the Sovereign and the subjects, charged with executing the laws and maintaining liberty. He distinguishes legislative power (the general will) from executive power (force), arguing that government is merely a commission, not a contract. He explores the proportional relations among Sovereign, prince, and people, concluding that the best form of government varies with the size and circumstances of the State. ## Themes in this chapter ### Sovereignty and Government Rousseau distinguishes legislative power (sovereignty) from executive power (government), emphasizing that government is merely a commission from the Sovereign and must not usurp the general will. ### The General Will The government's dominant will should be nothing but the general will or the law; any independent particular will in the prince leads to dissolution of the State. ### Decline and Corruption of the State Rousseau warns that if the prince's particular will overrides the general will, the social union evaporates and the body politic dissolves into despotism or anarchy. ## Character check-ins ### Jean-Jacques Rousseau Author and narrator, presenting his theory of government as an intermediate body and warning readers to read carefully. ## Key lines > Every free action is produced by the concurrence of two causes; one moral, i.e. the will which determines the act; the other physical, i.e. the power which executes it. A free action requires both the will to act and the physical power to carry it out. _Rousseau introduces the dual causes of action to analogize the body politic's legislative and executive powers._ > What then is government? An intermediate body set up between the subjects and the Sovereign, to secure their mutual correspondence, charged with the execution of the laws and the maintenance of liberty, both civil and political. Government is a mediating institution between the people and the Sovereign, responsible for enforcing laws and protecting freedom. _Rousseau defines government's role as a subordinate agent, not a sovereign entity._ > Thus those who hold that the act, by which a people puts itself under a prince, is not a contract, are certainly right. It is simply and solely a commission, an employment, in which the rulers, mere officials of the Sovereign, exercise in their own name the power of which it makes them depositaries. The people's submission to a ruler is not a contract but a commission; rulers are merely officials of the Sovereign, holding power temporarily. _Rousseau rejects the idea of a contract between people and ruler, asserting that sovereignty remains with the people._ > If finally the prince should come to have a particular will more active than the will of the Sovereign, and should employ the public force in his hands in obedience to this particular will, there would be, so to speak, two Sovereigns, one rightful and the other actual, the social union would evaporate instantly, and the body politic would be dissolved. If the ruler's personal will overpowers the general will and uses public force for private ends, the State splits into two sovereigns and collapses. _Rousseau warns of the danger of governmental usurpation leading to the dissolution of the body politic._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_social_contract_se/chapters/i-government-in-general - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_social_contract_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_social_contract_se/chapters