2. why does rousseau say the people cannot govern themselves without rulers?

People cannot govern themselves without rulers as a government is needed to defend and protect the social contract.

Explanation:

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1788) was a Swiss philosopher who wrote extensively on political thought. His most famous work is The Social Contract (1762). Unlike Thomas Hobbes, who argued that the state of nature is for people to be at war with each other, Rousseau thought that people aren't born good or evil, but it is society that makes them that way. He mentions that in order to have the best society possible, a social contract is necessary, where everybody agrees to cede a bit of their freedom in order for all to have the same rights and duties, and that this state of things will be overseen by a legitimate authority that rules over society. Rousseau argues that people cannot really govern themselves without the rule of such a government, as it is needed in order to protect and enforce the social contract against excesses by other individuals or the government itself. While his ideas were criticized at the time, Rouseeau's thought was deeply influential during the French Revolution of 1789.