On Rousseau's Idea Of The General Will And The Debates About It

Freedom is the core of Rousseau's political thought, and the general will is the guarantee of liberty. If we want to comprehend all of Rousseau's political thoughts we must grasp the thought of the general will. The general will is the common interest of all of citizens. Freedom is the goal that Rousseau pursued in all his life. In his opinion, freedom could be achieved by means of submitting the general will, and fulfill the responsibility stipulated by the general will. The general will and freedom are dialectical and integrated. And the law embodies the general will; the law is formulated by the citizens' will. Every person is equal, and no one is an exception. He believes that the people are the sovereign and the government derives from the sovereign. It is an organization that serves the people, and an intermediary between the people and the society, and its duty is supervision not oppression.Rousseau's thought of the general will arouse heated debate and research in the academic field. Some scholars think that the general will brings about the restraint of the individuality, and the supreme authority without restriction might open the door for totalitarianism. While the sovereign guided by the general will cannot be separated and it does not represent paramount. It will lead to despotism and dictatorship. On the contrary, the other group of scholars refutes them directly; they believe that the idea of the general will is the essence of Rousseau's political thought, because the general will pays close attention to the citizens' liberty and right, and expounds that democracy can enlighten people by education. So it is not despotism. They regard Rousseau as the founder of the modern democracy because he successfully separates the sovereign from the form of government. We can better understand the idea of the general will by summarizing and evaluation all of the debates.Every political-philosophy wants to solve the contradiction between the individual and the society; Rousseau's is not an exception. The essence of the general will is that individual and society is unified and dialectical. Rousseau thinks that we should rebuild our internal and external world. In the external world, all of the people should abide the law that reflected the general will. In the internal world, Rousseau thinks the virtue is important. He believes virtue is the most important thing; we should mold the citizen's soul and eliminate the harm of dependence clearly, and then the individual and the society will be unified harmoniously. Rousseau's thought is still relevant to our attempt to build a socialist harmonious society.