Book 3, Part 1 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 1, "Of Government in General"

This chapter contains several definitions of government - or, more accurately, definitions of several aspects of government. The first aspect defined is its essential human context. "Every free act," the author suggests, "must be produced by the concurrence of two causes: the one moral, that is to say, the will which must resolve upon the act, the other physical, that is to say, the power which must execute it ..." In other words, there must be a need, the will to address the need, and the capacity to act upon that will. The author suggests that need is felt by the citizens; the Sovereign Will is an expression of desired action to meet that need, and that government is a manifestation of a capacity to take that action.

The second aspect of government defined in...