Rousseau's interpretation of the cause for political changes

Abstract

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778) was one the leading persons who saw the disparity within a civil society arose with the private ownership and the state established on the basis of a social contract between human beings. Injustice, as Rousseau said, emerged with society, in which injustice in property and private ownership came up in the forefront and political inequality followed due to the creation of the state. So as to protect their interests, power holders managed to justify for such inequality and injustice and interpret inequality as a natural rule. Having interpreted social injustice as the cause for changes in the political life, Rousseau wanted to determine principles in organizing and exercising political rights in a way to formulate a social contract.