Concepts of Equality in Locke and Rousseau

There is no doubt that Rousseau favors a government which is based on democracy, equality and liberty. However, in endorsing such qualities, he warns that not every society is capable of sustaining them. Rousseau writes, in this context, that

I would have wanted to be born in a country where the sovereign and the people could have but one and the same interest, so that all the movements of the machine always tended only to the common happiness. Since this could not have taken place unless the people and the sovereign were one and the same person, it follows that I would have wished to be born under a democratic government, wisely tempered. I would have wanted to live and die free . . . I would not have wanted to dwell in a newly constituted republic, however good its laws may be for liberty is like . . . those full-bodied wines which are appropriate for nourishing and strengthening robust constitutions that are used to them, but which overpower, ruin and intoxicate the weak and delicate who are not suited for them (Rousseau, 1987, pp. 27-27).

Rousseau is declaring his love for a society based on equ

. . .
, in effect, for inequality in civil society (Locke, 1980, p. 29). Rousseau, on the other hand, begins and ends in a far more realistic appraisal of equality and liberty in real society. He rejects perfect liberty and equality and justice --- the ingredients of an ideal democracy --- and instead accepts that we must plan a society realistically: Instead of the sublime maxim of reasoned justice, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, pity inspires all men with another maxim of natural goodness, much less perfect but perhaps more useful than the preceding one: Do what is good for you with as little harm as possible to others. In a word, it is in this natural sentiment, rather than in subtle arguments that one must search for the cause of the repugnance at doing evil that every man would experience (Rousseau, 1987, p. 55). Rousseau, then, rejects reason (the primary tool of Locke) as the means of establishing a society of civilized human beings, and refers instead to this "natural sentiment," a realistic acceptance of one's imperfect relationship with other citizens. Locke and Rousseau may, in theory, champion equality and liberty, but in reality Rousseau delivers a more realistic standard for such qualities in re
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Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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