Jefferson and Rousseau

American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of Rights Few political documents have affected the world quite like the American Declaration of Independence or the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. The repercussions of each have had a profound effect on world history up to this point. But why did these documents have such an effect? The answer lies in the common philosophical backgrounds of the two. The writings of Rousseau, …

…Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen have common roots in the arguments of the Enlightenment, and in the Enlightened philosophies Rousseau, Locke and Montesquieu. Rousseau's idea of a social contract, Locke's natural rights, and Montesquieu's idea of the courts being the defenders of liberties all came into play when the two documents were written, and in being written, the culmination of the Enlightened thinkers came to their peak.