The Rules of Society

In order to discover the rules of society best suited to nations, a superior intelligence beholding all the passions of men without experiencing any of them would be needed. This intelligence would have to be wholly unrelated to our nature, while knowing it through and through; its happiness would have to be independent of us, and yet ready to occupy itself with ours; and lastly, it would have, in the march of time, to look forward to a distant glory, and, working in one century, to be able to enjoy in the next. It would take gods to give men laws.

Source: The Social Contract and Discourses (1761) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

In other words the “superior intelligence” is an omniscience being like God. This why gov’t cannot be God or even act like God because being composed of mankind it is related to our nature and its happiness is dependent on the governed.  Progressive gov’t leaders wish to be omniscience (even omnipresent and omnipotent like God) but they can’t and shouldn’t be.