Riječ "sloboda" na okovima Galijota - Bosanquetova teorija opće volje
The word "Liberty" on the Chains of Galley-Slaves: Bosanquets Theory of the General Will

Summary/Abstract: This is a critical examination of the most elaborate statement of the general will theory. Bosanquet contrasts our "lower", merely "actual" will, described as a series of momentary and passing, ignorant, routine, commonplace, irational, barren, mutually conflicting violations, with our "higher", "true", "real", will, which is a comprehensive and coherent system of stable and long-term, well informed violations that require effort of self-sacrifice and are expressed in "the great moments of live". His central thesis is that the individual's "real" will is the "general will" of the community that has been internalized and makes up the individual's "higher", "better" self. The theory is meant to solve the problem of political obligation by showing that, when obeying he law, the individual obeys only himsel/ herself, and his/her freedom is not curtailed but rather affirmed. The author argues that Bosanquet's argument fails at both crucial steps: it does not succeed in contrasting our "actual" and our "real" will, nor in identifying the latter with the "general will" of our community. The individual will is not embedded in his/her community the way the theory makes it out to be, and if we have a moral obligation to obey the law, it is no grounded in the "general will" of community as our own "higher", "true" will.

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