Geneva's Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1712 - 1778
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, philosophe, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic, and educational thought. Wikipedia.
Overview
Rousseau dedicated most of his life arguing vigorously in favor of the primacy of individual liberty, citizens’ sole power to determine the "the general will, and their irrevocable control of governing bodies. Simultaneously, he refuted vigorously the views of wealthy "patrician" families, aristocrats of assorted lineage, and even monarchists defending the French monarchy. In his native Geneva, they fought unceasingly to assert control of governing bodies, and use them to levy taxes on all inhabitants.
Rousseau’s unique and expansive ideas about individual liberty were well-known in the 18th century. His doctrines advocating self-government were also well-known, especially his insistence that government officials are “servants” of the people. He authored the famous Social Contract in which he provided a multi-faceted rationale and numerous prescriptions for building political institutions capable of empowering individuals to use government to protect their liberty. Given the simultaneous emergence of Switzerland’s popular sovereignty doctrines and direct democracy principles, he urged European countries to emulate them.
Although Rousseau’s life was caught up in turbulent cultural, economic, and political upheavals inside and outside his native city, his writings displayed dogged determination to make sense of these upheavals, as Swedish historian and American university scholar Helena Rosenblatt writes in Rousseau and Geneva: From the First Discourse to The Social Contract, 1749–1762.
As a consequence, Rousseau’s views were controversial during and after his lifetime. Although he is regarded as one of the world’s most influential thinkers and authors, the following critique was written by historians Will and Ariel Durant in Rousseau and Revolution (1967):
“How did it come about that a man born poor, losing his mother at birth and soon deserted by his father, afflicted with a painful and humiliating disease, left to wander for twelve years among alien cities and conflicting faiths, repudiated by society and civilization, repudiating Voltaire, Diderot, the Encyclopédie and the Age of Reason, driven from place to place as a dangerous rebel, suspected of crime and insanity . . . how did it come about that this man, after his death, triumphed over Voltaire, revived religion, transformed education, elevated the morals of France, inspired the Romantic movement and the French Revolution, influenced . . . the socialism of Marx, the ethics of Tolstoy and, altogether, had more effect upon posterity than any other writer or thinker of that eighteenth century?"
He pursued this avocation even when his idiosyncratic formulations for reversing growing inequality evoked criticism from wealthy patricians and aristocratic proponents of social, political, and economic hierarchies. At that time, Geneva was largely governed by an oligarchy comprised of wealthy families whose control of governing institutions enabled them to levy and collect taxes from all families and individuals. The population at large considered their tax levies unfair, as was their undemocratic control of the governing institutions that enabled them to decide these and related matters.
And while he read widely and familiarized himself with the renowned authors of his time, and met many of them in his travels, especially to Paris, his eclectic views were idiosyncratic and non-conformist. He opposed the censorship of intellectuals’ views and writings by members of both patrician families and aristocrats in Geneva. In retaliation, they frequently banned works and their authors, who could be beaten, and even killed if they deviated from orthodoxy. Nonetheless, even though Rousseau could mince words if necessary to propagate this views and avoid censorship, he rarely went out of his way to conform, even though he often found himself unwelcome in many places throughout his life. On occasion, Rousseau did try to immerse himself into other ways of thinking aligned with more patriarchal and aristocratic views. They included those espoused by prominent French intellectual Voltaire and prominent partisans in nearby France, which was ruled by an oppressive monarchy ended by a revolution lasting from 1789 -1799. But soon thereafter he repudiated Voltaire and these views, and re-aligned his views with those of the people with whom he grew up in his native city of Geneva, and in surrounding regions that later coalesced into the nation-state of Switzerland.
What is most unique and remarkable about Rousseau is his comprehensive analysis of virtually all types of human interactions, and his delving into history and immersing himself in works written centuries before his time, such as those of the Greek philospher Plutarch His aims included identifying the institutions and processes he considered indispensable to ensuring ordinary people are sovereign decision-makers.
In arguing that lawmakers in government are the servants of the people, he was countering long-standing patriarchal and aristocratic views that were being continually re-affirmed. Undaunted, he painstakingly identified, described, and prescribed specific ways and means by which sovereign citizens can determine the general will, by gathering together to make decisions, voting in elections to decide which "servants" of the people will hold positions in governing institutions.
“Rousseau believed in a legislative process that necessitates the active involvement of every citizen in decision-making through discussion and voting. He coined this process as the “general will”, the collective will of a society as a whole, even if it may not necessarily coincide with the individual desires of each member.” [141] Wikipedia
"Throughout his life he kept returning to the thought that people are good by nature but have been corrupted by society and civilization. He did not mean to suggest that society and civilization are inherently bad but rather that both had taken a wrong direction and become more harmful as they became more sophisticated." Encyclopedia Britannica
Paradoxically, Rousseau signed his original works “J.J. Rousseau, Citoyen de Geneve”. But later after Geneva elders condemned his books and they were ordered to be destroyed, he renounced his citizenship. Interestingly, he maintained his independent, idiosyncratic views even after they were roundly condemned, and he was declared persona non grata in one place and one country after another. He simply moved on to other less hostile environments where he could find influential people who would protect him.
What makes Rousseau’s 18th century work especially relevant to the Direct Democracy Global Network in the 21st century is its emphasis on the source of political liberty — people’s rights at birth, and the institutions and processes needed for them to exercise it -- not on constitutions, laws, court decisions, cultural mores, etc.
What he railed against were the external forces and factors that obstructed this exercise, and limited the possibilities for people to live their lives in their own way, as part of self-defining and self-determining communities, a far cry from modern political parties with pre-set priorities and candidates that were determined by top officials. Rousseau overcame these fears when he learned about indigenous mountain dwellers in regions that became Switzerland who had created unique pathways to exercise and retain their sovereignty.
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