Even Rousseau justifies democracy only negatively as non-violation
Evidence
More than leaving its contents and particulars unspecified, the bare concept of democracy (or the concept of bare democracy) features no continuous or consistent account of why the people ought to rule, only the negative one that we should not be ruled by others. Even Rousseau, nearly singular in Western political thought for closely specifying why democracy alone secures (or recovers) the moral dignity of man, theorizes democracy as a way not to violate this dignity, rather than by delineating democracy’s positive political value. Democracy alone is “the form of association … under which each individual, while uniting with the others, obeys no one but himself, and remains as free as before.” — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 403
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Neoliberals blamed Latin America’s Rousseau-inspired sovereignty culture for its socialism — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 315; Democracy means only that the people rule, nothing more — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 401; Democracy and liberalism can be decoupled and even opposed — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 235 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Rousseau held outvoting is never an individual violation but correction of error
#expands(0.85) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 6244 - Rousseau held that only the dissenter, never the majority, can be mistaken
#expands(0.80) - Rousseau’s general-will system inevitably yields totalitarianism
#expands(0.75) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2535 - Democracy and liberalism can be decoupled and even opposed
#qualifies(0.70) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 235