Rousseau Social Contract Analysis

Political Efficacy
The Social Contract
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Without a belief that political efficacy is strong, and each citizen making a personal input into society, it is the belief of both Rousseau and myself that “the State is not far from its fall.” Faith and activity in the political system has been replaced with financial activity. Rousseau states that, “In a country that is truly free, the citizens do everything with their own arms and nothing by means of money; so far from paying to be exempted from their duties, they would even pay for the privilege of fulfilling them themselves.” If people so desire to make their input to society purely financial, perhaps they should be punished financially for not being politically active.
By its definition, one of the few forms citizens have of direct democracy is through voting at any level. Voting is something that everyone should take more seriously, and youth especially are not making their way to the polls. It is this belief that a single vote has no power in the political system that needs to change. I believe that Rousseau would agree with me in saying that those who do not vote should be fined.
One thing Rousseau discusses in this section is a “lukewarmness of patriotism.” For too long, American’s have been okay with not being politically involved.
We are stuck in a lifestyle in which we sit around and complain about how things are going, possibly vote for whatever representatives seem to have the best ideas to change things, and then go on living our own lives with no concerns over what political action we could be taking. In Rousseau’s Social Contract he states, “As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State What does it matter to me? The State may be given up for lost.” This attitude seems to be popular among Americans. Rousseau hopes for an opposite attitude, and would love to see as much direct democracy as possible. He even makes a point to say that laws are not valid if they were not voted on directly. While this is a hopeful view to take, is it possible to mobilize Americans today to care more? Unfortunately I don’t think so. While one can argue that we can all take our part and vote, write our representatives, read more about legislation, I honestly think that far too many Americans are fine with going through life by just paying their taxes and never thinking about what more they could do. However, if there is one thing that can motivate the American people, it is
money.
While I really do think that more people will vote, the devil on my shoulder is wondering if this would fix the fact that people still mite not be politically informed. Nothing will stop citizens from simply going to the polls, checking a few boxes, and going on their merry way. We could say that those who sit back have strong political efficacy and are just okay with letting the elites in our country run things, but I honestly feel that they just don’t care. American’s like to boast about how advanced they are in comparison to other nations, and in certain areas we truly are. It has just been made too easy for citizens to live their whole lives without having anything more than pop culture knowledge of candidates for president, and do not dig deep to find the real issues and values that presidential candidates have.
The idea of the general will prevail and not needing representation has been made impossible to be realistic. There are too many problems, too many views, and too many interest groups out there for any direct democracy to work. Do we go on letting those who desire to be civically engaged do so, and let those who do not think matters of the state matter to them either carry on, or be charge with fees. While this idea mite help improve on our countries deficit, we could be egging on a lack luster attitude on politics and digging ourselves an even deeper whole. You know what, perhaps I’ll vote for the election of someone with a better view on the subject.