Key Arguments

• Rousseau defines the Sovereign’s mode of action strictly: "The Sovereign, having no force other than the legislative power, acts only by means of the laws," so its only effective power is law‑making.
• He identifies laws with the general will: "the laws being solely the authentic acts of the general will," hence any act of sovereignty must take the form of law.
• From these premises he infers the condition of sovereign action: "the Sovereign cannot act save when the people is assembled," because only an assembled people can authentically express the general will.
• By framing this as a matter of definition (what sovereignty is and how it acts), he rules out as non‑sovereign any regime where laws are made without an actual assembly of the people.

Source Quotes

CHAPTER XII: how the sovereign authority maintains itself The Sovereign, having no force other than the legislative power, acts only by means of the laws; and the laws being solely the authentic acts of the general will, the Sovereign cannot act save when the people is assembled. The people in assembly, I shall be told, is a mere chimera.

Key Concepts

• The Sovereign, having no force other than the legislative power, acts only by means of the laws; and the laws being solely the authentic acts of the general will, the Sovereign cannot act save when the people is assembled.
• the laws being solely the authentic acts of the general will
• the Sovereign cannot act save when the people is assembled.

Context

Opening sentences of Book III, Chapter XII ('how the sovereign authority maintains itself'), where Rousseau links the nature of sovereignty and law to the requirement that the people assemble in order for the Sovereign to act at all.