Why did Jean-Jacques Rousseau believe that legitimate laws must be made by citizens?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that legitimate laws must be made by citizens because true political liberty is found in obedience to a self-imposed law. In his view, when citizens act in their collective capacity as the sovereign to create laws, they are expressing the general will—a collective desire aimed at the common good rather than individual or group interests.12

Rousseau believed that because it is inconceivable for a people to intentionally create unjust laws for themselves, laws derived from the general will are inherently just. By participating in this process, the individual citizen, in obeying the law, is essentially obeying themselves as a member of the political community. This framework ensures that the state functions as a moral person where the laws serve the liberty and equality of its citizens. Consequently, government authority is only legitimate when it remains subordinate to this popular sovereignty; if a government places itself above the law to pursue its own interests, it loses its legitimacy.123