Rousseau on "Genuine Democracy" and Its Decline

• In Event: Rousseau and Democracy: The People and the Nation

Abstract

In response to critics of the Social Contract and Emile, Rousseau said, “Up to the present the democratic Constitution has been poorly examined. All those who have spoken about it either did not know it, or took too little interest in it, or had an interest in presenting it in a false light.” This paper will examine several of his discussions of “genuine democracy,” exploring the criteria by which it is identified, its advantages and disadvantages, and the inevitable hazards that lead Rousseau to think that democracies in the strong sense of the term are doomed to failure.
It is well known that Rousseau distinguishes between the sovereign (which must be democratic) and the government (which need not be). Rousseau. In the Social Contract, he concludes the chapter devoted to democracy by saying, “Such a perfect government is not suited to men.” Nevertheless, on several occasions he discusses the criteria for “genuine democracy” in ways that indicate that democracy is in fact practicable. He similarly refers to “democratic government, wisely tempered” as his preferred form of government.
This paper will refer to the full range of Rousseau’s discussions of democracy—using Political Economy, Emile, the Letter to d’Alembert, Letters Written from the Mountain, Plan for a Constitution of Corsica, the Second Discourse as well as the Social Contract and Emile. It will attempt to show the marks by which a “genuine democracy” can be identified and the need for a period of democratic government within all forms of government. Finally, it will show the particular way in which democracies fall victim to the inevitability of decline that affect all forms of government. While democracy’s proponents believe that democracy avoids the problem of usurpation of functions of sovereignty by the government characteristic of other forms of government, Rousseau insists that this very belief insidiously undermines genuine democracy.

Author

• Christopher Kelly, Boston College