Key Arguments

• Rousseau identifies a 'second relation' distinct from the sovereign–state relation: 'that of the members one to another, or to the body as a whole,' which provides the basis for a distinct class of laws.
• He specifies the normative structure of this relation: it 'should be in the first respect as unimportant, and in the second as important, as possible,' meaning interpersonal dependencies should be minimized while dependence on the collective should be maximized.
• He derives from this structure an ideal of individual and civic dependence: 'Each citizen would then be perfectly independent of all the rest, and at the same time very dependent on the city,' capturing his republican ideal of citizens who are not personally subordinated yet are strongly bound to the political community.
• He argues this configuration is achieved 'always by the same means, as the strength of the State can alone secure the liberty of its members,' so that individual liberty is functionally grounded in the collective power and unity of the state.
• He concludes that 'From this second relation arise civil laws,' thereby classifying private-law regulations (property, contracts, persons) as instruments for structuring interpersonal and citizen–city relations in line with this dependence-independence pattern.

Source Quotes

Besides, in any case, a people is always in a position to change its laws, however good; for, if it choose to do itself harm, who can have a right to stop it? The second relation is that of the members one to another, or to the body as a whole; and this relation should be in the first respect as unimportant, and in the second as important, as possible. Each citizen would then be perfectly independent of all the rest, and at the same time very dependent on the city; which is brought about always by the same means, as the strength of the State can alone secure the liberty of its members.

The second relation is that of the members one to another, or to the body as a whole; and this relation should be in the first respect as unimportant, and in the second as important, as possible. Each citizen would then be perfectly independent of all the rest, and at the same time very dependent on the city; which is brought about always by the same means, as the strength of the State can alone secure the liberty of its members. From this second relation arise civil laws.

Each citizen would then be perfectly independent of all the rest, and at the same time very dependent on the city; which is brought about always by the same means, as the strength of the State can alone secure the liberty of its members. From this second relation arise civil laws. We may consider also a third kind of relation between the individual and the law, a relation of disobedience to its penalty.

Key Concepts

• The second relation is that of the members one to another, or to the body as a whole; and this relation should be in the first respect as unimportant, and in the second as important, as possible.
• Each citizen would then be perfectly independent of all the rest, and at the same time very dependent on the city; which is brought about always by the same means, as the strength of the State can alone secure the liberty of its members.
• From this second relation arise civil laws.

Context

Middle of Book II, Chapter XII, where Rousseau identifies and normatively characterizes the second main class of laws—civil laws—by reference to the desired pattern of individual and civic dependence.