The General Will

The general will is a democratic ideal. A democratic ideal can be defined as society as a whole, exerting political, and social power. The general will in this sense is not only venerated but also supreme; it is the reflection of the common interests of the sovereignty. According to Rousseau, when the people join in a social contract, they abandon their claims of natural right, although the people are abandoning these rights, they can both preserve themselves and remain free. This is done by submitting to the authority of the general will of the people as a whole, not only does this power reside in the people as a whole, it also has to apply to the people as a whole. Meaning that the sovereignty agrees upon a set of rules and everyone follows these rules equally.

Therefore, to express the general will is to express every man's common desire. This guarantees that the will of others cannot be forced upon an individual, and ensures obedience upon oneself, because collectively they are the authors of the law. When concerning yourself with the general will, you also concern yourself with sovereignty.

Rousseau makes a sharp distinction between sovereignty and government. According to Rousseau, the government is charged with implementing and enforcing the general will and should be composed of a smaller group of citizens. He was very opposed to the idea of representative democracy. He believed in making laws directly from the general will of those in the sovereignty. Believing that the democratic government is set up to serve the people rather than rule over them.

The idea that the general will is inalienable is because it is applied to everyone equally. Rousseau say's "since the sovereignty is merely the exercise of the general will, it can never be alienated and that the sovereign, which is only a collective being, cannot be represented by anything but itself." (pg 153) When the law is applied equally, there is no way it can be alienated. The general will is also infallible, meaning that the general will is the collection of the majority's common desire. If all the members of a society are in agreement with the act of the sovereignty then it is law. Rousseau also talks of how the general will is indestructible. This is also because it is a collection of everyone's general will in the sovereignty. If one does not enter into the social contract then that person will be expelled from the society.

There are often many questions about what role the general will plays in a sovereignty. It directs the force of society; it is also what a community of citizens would unanimously do if they were selecting general laws and were voting with full information, good reasoning, unclouded judgment meaning without bias and emotion, public spirit and attempting to discern the common good.

The general will plays a large part in the democratic ideal. Since the sovereignty is made of everyone following the common desires of everyone in the society, one makes the assumption that the body politic and the laws they make would be the wish of the general population. This extends the power of a political entity, by accepting the general will and applying it to the laws of the sovereignty. They do not limit themselves to the will of a representative who more often than not will be more concerned with their own interests at heart. By extended