How did Rousseau connect citizenship with the common good?

In the political philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, citizenship is inextricably linked to the common good through the concept of the general will, or volonté générale.12

Rousseau argued that a legitimate social contract transforms individuals from solitary beings into members of a political community. In this state, citizens achieve true liberty by obeying laws they have prescribed for themselves as part of the collective sovereign. Citizenship requires individuals to transcend their personal or group interests and instead vote and act based on their sense of justice, aiming solely at the interest of the republic as a whole.321

For Rousseau, the state is a moral person whose laws are expressions of this general will. Because the general will is always directed toward the common interest, an individual who obeys the law is, in effect, obeying their own higher interest as a citizen. Consequently, Rousseau’s model of citizenship is organic and collective, subordinating individual rights to the general will to ensure the equality and liberty of all members within the political body.21