ROUSSEAU
Getting to the General Will
Can the Demos achieve the Common
Good?
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
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, the Marquis
de Condorcet (hereafter, Condorcet)
If we assume that people, on average, have a
better than even chance of knowing what is in the
common good, then allowing majority opinions to
rule is an excellent way to serve the instrumental
function of government.
 Condition
1: the average individual must have a better
than even chance of being right.
 Condition 2: the average individual must be motivated
to vote on the common good (and not, e.g. their private
interests)
The Purpose of Education

If children are
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brought up in common in the bosom of equality;
if they are imbued with the laws of the state and the precepts of the
general will;
if they are taught to respect these above all things;
if they are surrounded by examples and objects which constantly remind
them of the tender mother and who nourishes them, of the love she bears
them, of the inestimable benefits they receive from her, and of the return
they owe her,
we cannot doubt that they will learn to cherish one another mutually as
brothers, to will nothing contrary to the will of society, to substitute the
actions of men and citizens for the futile and vain babbling of sophists,
and to become in time defenders and fathers of the country of which
they will have been so long the children.
“General Will” vs. The “Will of All”

Mixed motivations again
 General
Will: What is good for the society as a whole?
 Will of All: What is the sum of individual interests?

General will is “general in its object as well as its
essence”
 Affects
all citizens equally
 Laws should be general, not relative to individuals or
distinct groups
Executive vs. Legislative: Checks and
Balances

The “sovereign” composes the legislature
 Only
the electorate can make laws
 All laws are general in that they apply to all
equally

The executive branch
 “Elected
Aristocracy”
 Responsible for administering the law in particular
cases
Equality

Economic inequality and other sources of
factionalism should be reduced or eliminated
 None
should be so poor that they are tempted to sell
their votes
 None should be so wealthy that they are able to buy
votes
 Differences in economic situation cause different
experience and special interests
 There should be either no political parties (to eliminate
factional conflict) or many political parties (to dilute
factional conflict)
Censorship and the Civic Religion

Official censors shape the cultural landscape
 Can
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the common good be achieved without censorship?
Religion is essential to maintaining a “love of duty”
 To
what extent is our willingness to forgo our private
interests in favor of the common good linked with our
religious commitments?
 Does the notion of a civic religion pose too great a
threat to liberty?
Instrumental vs. Intrinsic benefits of
democracy
Focus on the general will shows a preference
for instrumental goals
 Individual liberty (as ordinarily understood) is
strictly regulated

 Civic
religion and censorship
 Exclusion of women and/or other classes from the
electorate
 “Positive freedom”: Living the life that the rational
person would choose to live
 People
must be “Forced to be free”
Challenges for Rousseau’s View
Community Consensus vs. Pluralism and
Diversity
 Minority opinions?

 Civil
Disobedience and other forms of democratic
dissent