General Will
(Redirected from Volonté Générale)
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A General Will is a political philosophy concept that represents the unified sovereign will of the political community as distinct from individual wills or particular interests.
- AKA: Volonté Générale, Collective Will, Common Will, Sovereign Popular Will.
- Context:
- It can typically legitimize political authority through collective consent rather than divine right or traditional authority.
- It can often serve as the theoretical foundation for popular sovereignty and democratic legitimacy.
- It can frequently conflict with individual preferences while claiming to represent the common good.
- It can embody what Jean-Jacques Rousseau described as the will directed toward the public interest.
- It can range from being a Rousseauian General Will to being a Hegelian General Will, depending on its philosophical interpretation.
- It can range from being an Abstract General Will to being an Institutionalized General Will, depending on its manifestation form.
- It can range from being a Democratic General Will to being an Authoritarian General Will, depending on its implementation method.
- It can range from being a Procedural General Will to being a Substantive General Will, depending on its determination process.
- ...
- Examples:
- French National Assembly (1789) declarations claiming to embody the general will.
- American Constitutional Convention (1787) asserting foundational authority.
- Swiss Referendum System as institutionalized expression of collective will.
- Jacobin Committee of Public Safety claiming popular mandate.
- ...
- Counter-Examples:
- Individual Will, representing personal preferences and private interests.
- Factional Will, expressing particular group interests rather than common good.
- Divine Will, deriving authority from religious sources rather than popular consent.
- Market Preferences, aggregating individual choices without political deliberation.
- See: Social Contract Model, Popular Sovereignty, Political Philosophy Concept, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French Revolution, Democratic Theory, Collective Decision Theory, Public Interest, Political Legitimacy, National Assembly.