On Sovereignty Bodin

When examining documents from France regarding who has power and why, it is easily seen how this area would become such a powder keg. Each document presents a new perspective on the sovereignty of different ruling parties and ruling systems. All the documents describe a different perspective of power’s source. In “On Sovereignty” by Bodin, Bodin writes that power is divinely gifted from God to kings. Jean-Jacques Rousseau writes in The Social Contract a direct contradiction from Bodin, the people are sovereign and monarchs have no divine right to rule over the lower classes. Then as an extrapolation of Rousseau, 27 years later the National Assembly scripted Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and stated men are al equal from …show more content…
De Gouges in rebuttal of Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen. Even in a progressive time, the French Revolution, where people’s rights are being won, there is always someone who is being put under another and forgotten in seek of power. The first document that needs to be discusses is Bodin’s “On Sovereignty” in this document Bodin affirms the notion that had been widely accepted in Europe for hundreds of years that the King was divinely appointed and had absolute control. Bodin also said it was a system because the people under the king had to respect and uphold the rule of the monarch. When Bodin wrote this in the 16th century it was widely accepted and met with little opposition for hundreds of years until Rousseau wrote “The Social Contract”. Written in 1762 it almost directly disputes Bodin by saying the people have the sovereignty and kings are not divinely appointed. This piece was widely spread because of increased literacy and meeting places like coffee houses. It was the first real opposition to the absolute monarch and laid the groundwork for a possible revolution. The strife continued when famines and rumors about the