A CHALLENGED VISION AND ITS ALTERNATIVES. The Concept of General Will in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract
A CHALLENGED VISION AND ITS ALTERNATIVES. The Concept of General Will in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract
Author(s): Irina-Ana KantorSubject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Centrul de Analiza Politica
Keywords: general will, common will, public opinion, majority, democracy, participation, elites, association, citizenry, slavery, political right, force, human nature, natural law, political behavior
Summary/Abstract: Emerging from the perspective of contemporary debates in democratic theory, this study is an enquiry into the critical discussion on classical theory of participatory democracy advanced by Joseph Schumpeter in Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy and its pertaining to the meaning and function of the concept in the elitist democratic theory. The comparative approach of the analysis is illuminating the common philosophical framework on which Rousseau and Schumpeter are nevertheless drawing diverting designs and theories on democracy, the elitist versus the participatory one. The argument of the study develops on the validity of the concept of the general will in Rousseau‘s version with respect to human nature, freedom, association, citizenship and participation as opposed to serfdom and slavery, to governance generated by force as the source of right in politics.
Journal: Europolis, Journal Of Political Science And Theory
- Issue Year: 8/2014
- Issue No: 01 (15)
- Page Range: 31-50
- Page Count: 20
- Language: English
