"Might does not create right," explains Rousseau (Book I: III 173). If might produces right, then the people obey their rulers because they are forced to do so, not because they ought to. In a society run by force, what Rousseau terms as "slavery," there is no room for freedom. Without agreement, one's actions would have no moral significance. Only in a fair trade, of freedom for promotion of the general will, is man able to use reason and, thus, apply morality to his/her actions. Only when the people are restrained by their own desire to reflect among one another, as a whole, and form an agreement, and only where they have the freedom to do so, can a state attain the capability to uphold the freedom of its people.
Book I is most important to The Social Contract because it describes the makeup of the civil state that Rousseau believes will preserve the freedom of the people, and it explains the contract on which the state will rest. The people make up society, and therefore, when the time comes, as Rousseau indicates, that the state of nature is no longer able to support the individuals living in it, the people must come together and, through the social contract, through agreement, create a "sovereign." The "body politic" is the name given to the individual formed by the union of people, the "state," to the passive role that the group may satisfy, and the "sovereign," then, refers the active whole (Book I: VI 181-182). The sovereign is treated as an individual. No one person has any rights that are different from another, and the rights of each individual within this unified body must be in agreement with the state. Therefore, the sovereign will function to promote the general will of its people, excluding any individual wills that are contrary the unanimous will agreed on by the sovereign, or by its subjects. The "people" that make up the sovereign are "citizens" in that they hold authority within the sovereign and "subjects" when they abide by the laws of the state (Book I: VI 182).
