Rousseau The Social Contract "" General Will "a Conceptual Analysis

This dissertation, which concentrates on the concept of "general will", is a short interpretive essay of The Social Contract, It discusses about the natural source of "general will", the political latitude of "general will", the effective execution of "general will", the Rome history of "general will".When composing this paper, the author follows two principles: First, the author strictly observes The Social Contract's chapters of the original structure, chapter by chapter, volume by volume to find out the logos of "the argument of general will" in the arrangements of the structure of The Social Contract. Secondly, the author pays attention to many details of The Social Contract, such as Rousseau's inferences to Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli and Tacitus.This paper consists of four parts: Firstly, the natural source of General Will, a chapter with accounts of Rousseau's natural state in his Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men, discusses the natural sources of "general will". The war state which emerges in the end of human history, rather than the natural state is the start of "general will". Human remain in the original natural state can't and needn't become political, and it is the emergence of the state of war that causes the necessity of politic. Therefore, self-preservation is natural resources of "general will". Confronting the danger of self-preservation, human need each other to form a separate political body which is much more powerful to protect the preservation of each individual. The sovereign is the life of political body and the "general will" is its personality.The second chapter, the political latitude of "general will", starts from "On Property", the final chapter of Volume I. "General will" means full sacrifice of all citizens' possessions to the political body. But it contradicts with the natural rights of people. Therefore "general will", which starts from the selfishness to achieve a collective selfishness, is not the removal of privacy, but rather the generalization of the will of self-preservation. "General will" commits to the preservation of freedom, and its goal is self-legislation, which means self-legislation and self-rule. But "self-legislation" is not sufficient for "general will". Human is the beast integrated with angel. Therefore, sovereignty, lawgiver and civil religion play much more important rule in the formation of "general will". The second chapter focuses on these three elements. Sovereignty plays an important role in the realization of "general will", and the sovereignty is "general will" executed and is the political justice. Therefore, the monarch, who executes "general will" on the behalf of sovereignty, becomes the true symbol of sovereignty. Since the monarch may become very tyrannical, the true sovereign has to rely on the law which is directly made by it to tame the monarch. Taming monarch needs lawgiver to act. The process, that the lawgiver must translate customs and morals into political laws, means that human ascents from a physical to moral existence. But the legislation cannot depend on force; he can only turn to citizen religion. Religion is the most powerful tool when the lawgiver founding political body. Every citizen religion must be consistent with the spirit of the nation.Rousseau's The Social Contract is committed to finding a practical and effective political government principle, which is different from those empty or imagined political theories. Therefore, "general will" must be the effectively executed justice. The effective execution of "general will" discusses monarchy and executive power which is the core but the most dangerous for "general will". Execution science is different from the classical political regime theory; it is a brand-new modern invention. Rousseau inherited this new science, and regarded it as the final way of realization of "general will". Rousseau's theory of the Govemment can be divided into two parts: the execution science and the resist to dioxin of govemment. The former reflects the lawful and effective execution of "general will" and laws, which has the standards of efficiency and legitimacy; the latter reflects the resist of the dioxin of government, which has freedom as yardstick. As the govemment is a necessary evil, and any government will gradually corrupt, it will from the execution of "general will" gradually become the personal despots. The most effective and direct way to restrain this evil is to resort to natural right. People as the sovereign, must assemble from time to time, to demonstrate the strength of the sovereignty and confront the corrupted government. But it will lead to revolution and unrest. In the fourth volume of The Social Contract, Rousseau discusses the political history of Rome, including the history of the Roman comitia, the tribunate, the dictatorship, censorship and civil religion. Rousseau's discussion of the political history of Rome was almost neglected by the readers of The Social Contract. The final chapter of this dissertation is about Rousseau's Rome history. "General will" is still the thread of Rousseau's discussion about Rome history. The Rome history is to support the first three-volume discussion about "general will". The history of Rome is a picture of "general will" and shows us "general will" is eternal. Once it is in the Roman Republic "general will" is possible, this historical picture is possible to achieve in the future.