Of The Social Contract and Other Political Writings (Penguin Translated Texts) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780141931999
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2012-10-03T23:00:00+00:00

CONSTITUTIONAL PROPOSAL FOR CORSICA

Prefatory Note

The Corsican Republic, under the leadership of Pasquale Paoli, had proclaimed its independence from Genoa and sovereignty in 1755. Rousseau, an admirer of the new republic, had written:

There is still one country in Europe fit to be given laws: it is the Isle of Corsica. The valour and constancy with which that brave people has managed to recover and defend its liberty would deserve that some wise man should teach it to preserve that liberty. I have a feeling that one day that little island will astonish Europe. (Of the Social Contract, Book II, Chapter 10)

As a result of these words, a Corsican patriot and officer in the French army, Matthieu Buttafoco, wrote to ask him if he would be willing to draft a constitution for the republic. In his reply, on 22 September 1764, Rousseau declares himself daunted by the task given his lack of direct knowledge of the territory and the impossibility, in his state of health, of visiting the island in person. Buttafoco supplied Rousseau with further information, and the philosopher set to work in early 1765, producing the somewhat fragmentary text we have today. Had history turned out differently, Rousseau might have returned to the project, but the Genoese, perceiving correctly that they could not dislodge the republic, sold their interest to France, which invaded in 1768–9, ending the republic and forcing Paoli into exile. The main respect in which the island ended up astonishing Europe was not as a beacon of republican virtue, but rather by providing the world with the future French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte.

The text is an interesting example of Rousseau trying to apply the principles of the Social Contract to a real political subject. One noteworthy point is that Rousseau espouses a much more collectivist view of property in Corsica than he does elsewhere in his writings. The text was unpublished until an edition by G. Streickeisen-Moltou in 1861.

The present translation is based on the text contained in volume 3 of the Pléiade edition of Oeuvres Complètes produced under the direction of Bernard Gagnebin and Marcel Raymond in 1964.

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