Modern Political Thought: Rousseau and the French Revolution

Vocabulary and key concepts from Week $$12$$ regarding Rousseau's theories on sovereignty and government, the class dynamics of the French Revolution, and its impact on marginalized groups.

Sovereign (Rousseau)

The body-politic when it is actively engaged in the process of creating laws.

Citizens (Rousseau)

Individual members of the body-politic when they participate in the process of sovereignty and lawmaking.

General Will

A structural common interest that exists independent of people's recognition of it; it is always correct and indestructible

Will of All

The aggregate or sum of people's private interests and particular wills, which differs from the general will's focus on common interest.

Government (Rousseau)

An intermediate body between the sovereign and the subjects that executes and administers the laws made by the sovereign.

Democracy (Rousseau's Legitimacy)

The only form of legitimate government because the act of creating it turns the sovereign itself into the government, ensuring the general will remains the only master.

First Estate

The social class in pre-revolutionary France representing the Church.

Second Estate

The social class in pre-revolutionary France representing the Nobility.

Third Estate

The social class in pre-revolutionary France representing 'everyone else,' comprised of peasants, workers, merchants, and professionals.

Bourgeoisie

The merchant and professional elements of the Third Estate who took power after the fighting of the French Revolution ended.

Productive Classes

A categorization used by the revolutionary bourgeoisie to unite themselves with the peasantry and proletariat against the 'unproductive' nobility and clergy.

Privilege

Derived from 'privi lege' or 'private law'; the unjustified advantages afforded to the nobility and clergy that the bourgeoisie sought to replace with merit-based systems.

Olympes de Gouges

The author of the 'Declaration of the Rights of Woman' who was guillotined for her critique of the revolution's sexist exclusion of women.

Toussaint Louverture

The leader who was born enslaved and went on to lead the first successful rebellion of enslaved people in the Americas, establishing an independent nation.

Haitian Independence Debt

The $150$ million gold francs that France forced Haiti to pay as reparations for slaveholders, a debt that was not finished being paid until $1947$.

Why can’t the sovereign be alienated or divided?

if it was, it would no longer be the general will, only a particular will.

Because the general will cannot be represented….

lawmaking (sovereignty) must take place in popular assemblies.

What does JR favor?

small countries as ideal republics

Why is only the sovereign constituted by social contract?

to constitute a government by contract would undermine the sovereign by creating a master other than the general will.

the sovereign creates government, and it is able to carry out this order…

…only in democracies, because the very act of creating a democracy turns the sovereign itself into government.

Hence, only democracies are legitimate governments.

Why is the FR referred to as the Bourgeois Revolution?

merchants, and professionals are the ‘bourgeoisie’, and despite the peasants & workers leading the revolution itself, the bourgeois elements were the ones to take power after the fighting ended.