Rousseau recognized that modern society cannot function without some fre of government. His goal was to make that government as least oppressive a possible. In his book The Social Contract (1762), Rousseau described his ide society. Like early philosophers, he agreed that members of a society agreed u give up some of their freedom in order to serve the common interests of all the people in the society.
However, philophers disagreed with how to identify the common interest Rousseau called the expression of the common interest the general will. He did not think the general will was always the view of the majority of people. The majority could be mistaken about what actions were in their best interest. Rousseau believed that sometimes a small group of well-informed people wou be best able to determine what would serve society overall. Further, he argued that those who disagreed with the general will must obey it so that society would operate smoothly.
Rousseau's theories inspired many later leaders. Among these were the write of the U.S. Constitution in 1787, the radicals of the French Revolution that began in 1789, and communists who ruled China and Russia in the 20th century Readers of Rousseau disagreed sharply on how to determine the general will: • Supporters of republican or democratic government argued that voting was the clearest way to discover the general will. In Rousseau's time, very few people could vote, but today many countries allow nearly all adults to cast ballots.
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Supporters of dictators trusted a single leader to express the general will. They emphasized that a highly educated ruler might make better decisions than a mass of poorly educated peasants and workers.
Opponents of government in general thought that it was the wrong way to determine the general will. They cited Rousseau's belief in the noble savage to justify their skepticism about all forms of public authority. What evidence supports the criticism of rousseau that he was not clear on how to identify the general will (short sentence) written like a 8th grader