Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Social Contract: Section 254
When the Prince no longer administers the State in accordance with laws and usurps the sovereign power … a remarkable change occurs; it is not the Government but the State that shrinks: I mean to say that the large state dissolves and another is formed within it, composed solely of the members of the Government, and it is for the rest of the People only its master and tyrant. So that at the instant that the Government usurps sovereignty, the social pact is broken; and all ordinary Citizens, returning by right to their natural liberty, are forced but no longer obligated to obey.
Themes
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) was a Genevan social philosopher. His exerted a profound influence on the social and political thought of the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, including aspects of the French Revolution. Many of his ideas were foundational in the overall development of modern political and educational thought.