k below the rest. This suggests that society itself was the original cause of inequality and society in some form, of no larger than the wandering band, is probably as old as the human species.
In the Social Contract, Rousseau covers similar ground, but emphasizing a later stage in the evolution of society. His key argument is one similar to that implied in the Declaration of Independence: that human society originates fundamentally as a voluntary compact. Hierarchy, such as kingship, arises later.
A people, says Grotius, can give itself to a
king. Then, according to Grotius, a people is a
people before it gives itself. The gift is itself
(Social Contract, 173)
Rousseau rejects the "right of conquest," practically as well as morally, on the ground that conquerors and conquered remain at war until the latter chose to submit.
There is again an element of truth in this. All government depends on some subtle degree on the consent of the governed. When consent is wholly withdrawn, even tyrannical governments collapse, as in the Communist Soviet Union or Somoza's Nicaragua. Yet the experience of modern history
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