Modern people regard the world, nation
and relationships among individuals as self-identified perspective, even the
evolution of modernity is demonstrated in these relations. Rousseau’s political
conception was carried out in the deep thought of these relations; he tried to
establish a firm foundation for human beings’ politics and morality. He
admitted the existence of universal humanity and morality, but did not believe
that people could live in a global city-state with sovereignty. That was to
say, he did not think that making universal morality coming true by global
city-state, which was a realistic thought concluded through his observation to
the world. Although Rousseau rejected globalism, but it didn’t mean he thought
that national union could not be the foundation of people’s universal morality.
He pointed out that political union should establish its own universal
willingness on the base of universal morality, after the formation of society,
natural individuals established relations with others, and transferred from
social life to social existence. However, the self-love transferred to
self-interested love in natural situation, so people must overcome the
shortcomings of individual willingness through universal willingness, and
realized citizens’ morality and freedom as individuals.
Popular
sovereignty was the most famous political theory contribution, which was showed
intensively in his the social contract.
Rousseau tried to put freedom and sovereignty into a consistent structure, established
sovereignty base on individual freedom, and realized the whole people’s freedom
under sovereignty. He pointed out that promoting political power to a sacred
right in pure secular situation to overcome universal deviation in political
society. He assumed an essential theme ---- freedom was the essence of human
beings, and constructed logical explanation using natural condition and social
contract, and then he found the solution in the aspect of philosophy ----
popular sovereignty, which was a conceptual structure for the combination of
people, public willingness, and public interest. Through this structure,
Rousseau overcame the conventional sovereignty value that the ruler was out of
political union and beyond it, he regarded ruler as an independent person but
not out of people, the ruler was the public ego of human beings’ morality;
public willingness was different from individual willingness but was from it,
which was every citizen’s moral willingness; ruler’s interest was different
from individual interest but it was the common interest of the whole people;
sovereignty belonged to human beings, ruler acted through the people’s
participation, and every citizen used his right by participated in sovereignty;
sovereignty was absolute but limited, which was its own logic.
l The opposition and
consistency of freedom and sovereignty
Rousseau’s the social contract was attempted to solve the intensive
relationship between people’s natural freedom and realistic constraint. The
chains were from law, material and psychological dependence. While he focused
on the chain caused by law, by political rule, which was sovereignty. Rousseau
thought that the principle of political life was from authority of sovereignty.
He did not rely on a super god, but advocated to establish a republic nation on
the base of individual free willingness.
l The conceptual
structure of popular sovereignty
Rousseau’s popular sovereignty was the
combination of people, public willingness and public interest, if we used a
formula to express, that was:
1, People = rulers
2, Sovereignty = public willingness
3, Public willingness = public interest
l Can popular sovereignty
and individual freedom be harmonious?
It was an important value to
discriminate the rights of citizens and ruler; he thought the rights were
limited, and the principle to decide the limitation was equality, beyond which
people respected contract not because they were obeying somebody, but just as
free as obeying themselves. Rousseau did not admit the justice of delegacy,
because he thought that way would destroy universality apart from willingness
could not be represented.
l The existence of god
The fundamental
difficult problem was god’s death in modern politics, and how to establish
legal order in the human world. However, in Rousseau’s system, god was not
dead, and the god was latent controlling his whole conception of sovereignty
and supporting his political system. This was the final origin for his
sovereignty thought, and it was destined that Rousseau’s utopia was hard to be
the blueprint for secular world politics.
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