Jean-Jacques Rousseau – On Representatives (The Social Contract, Book III, Chapter 15), my emphases“Sovereignty cannot be represented for the same reason that it cannot be alienated; it consists essentially in the general will, and the will does not admit of being represented: either it is the same or it is different; there is no middle ground. The deputies of the people therefore are not and cannot be its representatives, they are merely its agents; they cannot conclude anything definitively. Any law which the People has not ratified in person is null; it is not a law. The English people thinks it is free; it is greatly mistaken, it is free only during the election of Members of Parliament; as soon as they are elected, it is enslaved, it is nothing. The use it makes of its freedom during the brief moments it has it fully warrants its losing it.”
3 comments:
haha I love that picture of Pere Diddy
perhaps in our day, the state does to a large degree reflect the general will, not because it is a product of the general will, but because the general will is a product of the state. This wouldn't deny that any hostility is possible. we've all heard of Frankenstein.
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