Statement B
best describes Rousseau's views.
In The Social Contract,
Rousseau posited that people, when they remained in the state of nature, were not corrupt.
Instead, it was society that corrupted them, particularly the competition for material wealth.
In his view, society created inequalities that were unnatural. Prior to the French Revolution,
France was a very unequal society with an increasingly desperate working-class and a willfully
blind aristocracy. For Rousseau and other Enlightenment figures, this situation was
untenable.
Rousseau believed that a government formed by popular
sovereignty, or with the consent of the people, would be most sustainable in the
long-term.
Rousseau had a positive view of human nature. On the other hand,
Thomas Hobbes had a negative view. Statement C best reflects Hobbes's view as explained
in Leviathan. He believed that, without a strong monarch, citizens would
give in to their worst instincts.
However, neither Hobbes nor Rousseau
favored the abandonment of minorities. It was a government's responsibility, whether it be a
popular sovereignty or a monarchy, to protect the interests of all
citizens.
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