Rousseau’s general will as a tool of democracy

Abstract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s idea of the general will, the governing force in his political system, has led some to label him as an authoritarian. Herein I will analyse his writings in The Social Contract, and argue against this conception of the text, instead showing that this work supports the characterisation of Rousseau as a democrat. I will do this by building on Sreenivasan’s interpretation of the general will, which shows that Rousseau developed a system of deliberation to accord the common interest of the people with their democratic vote. I will argue that this deliberative mechanism, along with Rousseau’s conflation of the general will with the people’s vote supports the idea that Rousseau upheld a substantive form of democracy.