Rousseau and Totalitarianism

Rousseau and Totalitarianism

Rousseau clearly promotes totalitarianism in The Social Contract, and hints at it in a few passages from his Second Discourse. He desperately attempts to lay down a form of government that eliminates any chance for the people to be victims. Rousseau specifically shows us the faults in the other types of government and tries to prevent them in his ideas. He wants to create a political situation where people have as much sovereignty as possible.

In order to reduce the chance of victimhood among the peoples there must be equality between them all. Rousseau discusses 'the right of the first occupant' in The Social Contract. He writes, "…the claimant occupies no more than he needs for subsistence…he takes possession…by actually working and cultivating the soil -- the only sign of ownership…"(Social, p.66) Each man receives what he needs from the common good and no more. Rousseau obviously wants people to be as equal as possible, and believes that once you enter the civil society you only have the right to what is yours and no more.

In a democracy this would not exist at all. There is no equality between everybody's property, meaning anyone can have more than he needs. In a democratic society people are encouraged to take as much as one can. The more someone has the more they have used democracy in its purest form. People have the freedom to be greedy and take whatever they can under a democratic society. Rousseau wants a society where everyone only gets what they need, no more no less, almost holding back those individuals in a position to acquire more.

Rousseau's society has a very controlling government with a lot of power that could be damaging if given to the wrong p...

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...escription of democracy takes on the form of a more totalitarianistic nature, giving almost total control to the government over all the members of the state. His views are very optimistic assuming that no one would take advantage of the power given. Some might even label him as wanting utopianism.

Works Cited

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract. Trans. Maurice Cranston. New York: Penguin Books, 1968.

---. The First and Second Discourses. Trans. Roger D. and Judith R. Masters. Ed. Roger D. Masters. New

York: St. Martin's, 1964.

Bibliography:

Works Cited

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract. Trans. Maurice Cranston. New York: Penguin Books, 1968.

---. The First and Second Discourses. Trans. Roger D. and Judith R. Masters. Ed. Roger D. Masters. New

York: St. Martin's, 1964.