STEPHANIE RUEDIN SEBASTIAN TORP KARIM EL-ZAWAHRY PAUL GAILEY Jean Jacques Rousseau & Montesquieu

LIFE SPAN & PORTRAIT Jean Jacques Rousseau Born: June 28, 1712, Geneva Died: July 2, 1778, Ermenonville, France Nationality: Swiss

MOST INFLUENTIAL CONCEPT Rousseau was a political philosopher who had different views to the many others out there. He had a lot to say about human developement and stages. Savagery being the third one. He has theories about politics where he states that man is better off being governed than being in their „natural state.“ This was part of political legitimacy theory. Legitimacy, for Rousseau, justifies that state‘s exercise of power to physically harm, creates an obligation to obey. Rousseau contrasts the legitimate social order with a system that rules system of rules, that is merely the experssion of power. He has his way of explaining politics that people didnt understand. Freedom and justice. Unlike most other philosophers of his Rousseau’s time, he believed that people are all born good, independent and compassionate. If left to their own devices in a state of nature (a society with no government or laws, like on a desert island) people would naturally live happily and peacefully. In fact, such a society would be free and ideal, much more satisfying than the inequalities brought by modem society.

MOST RECOGNIZED PUBLISHED BOOK OR WORK? One of Rousseau's great works was The Social Contract talked about how representative democracy, where people vote for other people to represent them, was in a corrupt state. He believed that as soon as the people of Parliament etc… had been chosen, the people were enslaved. He thought that governments should be ruled on the basis of a democratic “social contract” where the people should chose in which way their society is governed. “Discourse of political economy” was another of Rousseau’s published works, stating nearly all of his theories on the subject of politics.

WHY YOU THINK THEY ARE STILL RELEVANT TODAY/ WHERE CAN WE STILL FIND EVIDENCE OF THEIR THOUGHTS? The way that Jean Jacques Rousseau thought about society is starting to develop in the minds of others over time and people are becoming more aware of their right to freedom and are thinking about the way they rule. Switzerland still governing in a similar way to when he was alive, is still a successful country, when compared to countries who are still trying to find the right way of governing their country. We live in a democratic society where everyone over the age of 18, has the right to vote, and it works well. He has influenced the generations to come after him, in the way they govern.

LIFE SPAN & PORTRAIT Montesquieu Born: January 18, 1689, La Brède, France Died: February 10, 1755, Paris, France Nationality: French

MOST INFLUENTIAL CONCEPT Montesquieu, like John Locke, was concerned with protecting the political liberty. He strongly argued that the best way to protect it was too divide the government into three very separate branches of law. Legislative = made the laws Executive = enforced the laws Judicial = interpreted the laws He claimed that by having three different categories of law, no one would be more over powering than the other, making them equal. Montesquieu called this concept Separation of powers. Countires such as America and France are using the separation of power to govern their country

MOST RECOGNIZED PUBLISHED BOOK OR WORK? Montesquieu wrote a book, published in 1748, called The Spirit of Laws. This was his most recognized piece of work. He described his theory on how governments should work and be organized.

WHY YOU THINK THEY ARE STILL RELEVANT TODAY/ WHERE CAN WE STILL FIND EVIDENCE OF THEIR THOUGHTS? Montesquieu ideas and ways had a big impact on later thinkers. Among the men following up on Montesquieu’s ideas, were the ones who wrote the U.S Constitution. They made the separation of powers a key part of the American Government system. E.x: The court system, wherein people who have committed an offence are taken to court and then the judge or jury rule out a statement depending on the information and the assumptions they make of the persons acts. If they are guilty or innocent.