Key Arguments

• Rousseau explicitly draws the analogy: "The family then may be called the first model of political societies: the ruler corresponds to the father, and the people to the children; and all, being born free and equal, alienate their liberty only for their own advantage."
• He immediately qualifies the analogy by insisting on a crucial difference in motive between private and public rule: "The whole difference is that, in the family, the love of the father for his children repays him for the care he takes of them, while, in the State, the pleasure of commanding takes the place of the love which the chief cannot have for the peoples under him."
• By emphasizing that citizens are "born free and equal" and alienate liberty only for their own advantage, Rousseau suggests that the legitimacy conditions of political authority are stricter than those of paternal authority and cannot simply borrow their justification from familial relations.

Source Quotes

His first law is to provide for his own preservation, his first cares are those which he owes to himself; and, as soon as he reaches years of discretion, he is the sole judge of the proper means of preserving himself, and consequently becomes his own master. The family then may be called the first model of political societies: the ruler corresponds to the father, and the people to the children; and all, being born free and equal, alienate their liberty only for their own advantage. The whole difference is that, in the family, the love of the father for his children repays him for the care he takes of them, while, in the State, the pleasure of commanding takes the place of the love which the chief cannot have for the peoples under him.

The family then may be called the first model of political societies: the ruler corresponds to the father, and the people to the children; and all, being born free and equal, alienate their liberty only for their own advantage. The whole difference is that, in the family, the love of the father for his children repays him for the care he takes of them, while, in the State, the pleasure of commanding takes the place of the love which the chief cannot have for the peoples under him. Grotius denies that all human power is established in favour of the governed, and quotes slavery as an example.

Key Concepts

• The family then may be called the first model of political societies: the ruler corresponds to the father, and the people to the children; and all, being born free and equal, alienate their liberty only for their own advantage.
• The whole difference is that, in the family, the love of the father for his children repays him for the care he takes of them, while, in the State, the pleasure of commanding takes the place of the love which the chief cannot have for the peoples under him.

Context

Still in Chapter II, Rousseau uses the family analogy to illuminate, but also sharply distinguish, the nature of political authority, undermining arguments that treat kings simply as political fathers.