Rousseau, The Social Contract Book II, Ch. 3: "Whether the General Will Can Err"

Thesis

• The general will is always right and tends towards the public good, but the people’s deliberations are not always right.

• The people are never corrupted, but often deceived.

• Factions distort the general will

Will of all vs. general will

1. Will of all: the sum of all private wills

2. General will: sum of differences, aimed at common interest

When does the general will emerge?

When people deliberate with information and no factions among them

How do factions corrupt the general will

• Partial associations form

• Each association’s general will is different from each other

• When one association dominates, there is no general will reflected

Two Remedies to Factions

• Have no partial societies

• If there must be partial societies, multiply their number and keep their powers equal

Link to textbook

Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem and Condorcet Paradox — There may be no general will

Links to Madison’s faction argument— remedy is to multiply factions
Connects to Altman — engineering the people’s will is deception, not corruption