General will

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The general will, first enunciated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is a concept in political philosophy referring to the desire or interest of a people as a whole. It is most often associated with socialist traditions in politics.

General will is what the body politic (community of citizens) would unanimously do if they were selecting general laws and were choosing/voting with full information, good reasoning, unclouded judgment (bias and emotion can cloud judgment), public spirit, and attempting to discern the common good.

People should submit their will to the general will which cannot be wrong and whoever refused would be subject to compulsion, so to express the general will is to express every man's common will.

[edit] Criticism

Liberal thinkers, for example Isaiah Berlin, have criticised the concept of General Will from a variety of angles:

• The idea that there is one path which benefits everyone is itself contested. Under the pluralist tradition, the common good is considered to be an aggregate of private interests, which needs balancing, rather than one over-arching, quasi-metaphysical concept.
• Even if there was one path which benefitted everyone, it is a mistake to say that it is then their will. There is a difference between interest and desire. Thus the imposition of the General Will is not consistent with autonomy or freedom.
• Rousseau offers no mechanism for the articulation of the General Will. He suggests that under some conditions it may not actually be expressed by the majority. But who is in a position to rule on what the General Will is? Thus the concept could be manipulated by totalitarian regimes, who compel people against their actual will.