ABSTRACT
The power of the Sovereign over the individual is limited to the promotion of the good of the whole. On entering into the contract, every associate makes a total alienation of his rights and powers to the community. The sovereignty of this body is complete and subject to no conditions or restrictions. The logical inability of the Sovereign to harm its members could be construed as a limitation on the sovereign power is an unsustainable proposition. To Rousseau, the individual cannot be said to have a right against the State, because State and individual are morally identical. The right to a means of livelihood springs from the duty to preserve life and to fulfil its diverse obligations. The whole conception of omnicompetence is abhorrent to the theorists of the Natural Right school, which in many important respects stands in the Christian tradition. To the Christian, rights are the obverse of duties; they are the means to the performance of duties.
