Conception of the General Will Safeguard Against Tyranny - Essay Example

Every man is born free and he is his own master. No man can make any other man his subordinate without the free consent of the latter (Rousseau, Book IV, 1923). The paper attempts to address the question of whether the General Will can safeguard against tyranny or promote it.

The social contract

            Man is born independent and enters into society “by an act of free will” (Rousseau, 1917, p.28). The term ‘social contract’ directs towards an arrangement in which the common mass submits sovereignty to the government or authority for the maintenance of social order in the country. Through this, they become “an indivisible part of the whole” (Ramgotra, 1994, p. 820). Through the social contract, a polity is created, that acts as per its general interest (Trachtenberg, 2002, p.4).  Thus, a law is proposed in the popular assembly and all the citizens give consent to the law. The right of voting cannot be separated from any individual citizen in any act of sovereignty (Rousseau, Book IV, 1923). Rather, one becomes a citizen through his co-authorship in the law-making (Parra, 2010 p. 15)

Each individual has the inherent right to state his views and make proposals. It is argued that, if he has a particular interest that is different from the common interest, the individual is made to become free on being forced to follow the interest of the majority. This is based on a supposition that the vote of the majority binds the rest of the mass and all the qualities of the majority are reflected in the General Will. “The constant will of all the members of the State is a general will; by it, they are citizens and free” (Rousseau Book IV, 1923). The society so formed has been termed by Rousseau as “people” (Rousseau, 1997)

The General Will and common good

In this context, the question arises, that how the people who do not agree to the law are considered free as well as subject to it at the same time. The existence of opponents does not invalidate the law; rather, they prevent themselves from being integrated into it. From Rousseau’s point of view, the General Will always tends to support the cause of public advantage and by making the citizens follow the law that looks after the good of the community, they are made free. When a new law is needed to be issued, the necessity is seen as universal. The man who proposes it merely says what the others have already felt. Hence the situation of questioning the law is not expected to arise at all. He rests assured that the others will support him in his action (Rousseau, Book IV, 1923). The civil association is mostly a voluntary act. When the law is proposed, it is not asked of the citizens whether they reject or approve of it, but it is checked whether the law conforms to the general will, assuming that the general will is the will of the people at large. So, when the individual citizen holds a view that is different from the common will or is unwilling to give consent to the new law, it proves that the person is mistaken.