His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic, and educational thought. His Discourse on Inequality , which argues that private property is the source of inequality, and The Social Contract , which outlines the basis for a legitimate political order, are cornerstones in modern political and social thought.
Rousseau's sentimental novel Julie, or the New Heloise was important to the development of preromanticism and romanticism in fiction. Rousseau's autobiographical writings—the posthumously published Confessions completed in , which initiated the modern autobiography, and the unfinished Reveries of the Solitary Walker composed — —exemplified the late 18th-century " Age of Sensibility ", and featured an increased focus on subjectivity and introspection that later characterized modern writing.
Rousseau was born in the Republic of Geneva , which was at the time a city-state and a Protestant associate of the Swiss Confederacy now a canton of Switzerland. Since , Geneva had been a Huguenot republic and the seat of Calvinism. Five generations before Rousseau, his ancestor Didier, a bookseller who may have published Protestant tracts, had escaped persecution from French Catholics by fleeing to Geneva in , where he became a wine merchant.
Rousseau was proud that his family, of the moyen order or middle-class , had voting rights in the city. The citizens were a minority of the population when compared to the immigrants inhabitants and their descendants natives. In fact, rather than being run by vote of the citizens, the city was ruled by a small number of wealthy families that made up the Council of Two Hundred ; they delegated their power to a member executive group from among them called the "Small Council".
There was much political debate within Geneva, extending down to the tradespeople. Much discussion was over the idea of the sovereignty of the people, of which the ruling class oligarchy was making a mockery. In , democratic reformer Pierre Fatio protested this situation, saying "A sovereign that never performs an act of sovereignty is an imaginary being".
