Key Arguments

• Rousseau begins by tying deliberative behavior to political health: "the way in which general business is managed may give a clear enough indication of the actual state of morals and the health of the body politic."
• He states that harmony in assemblies reflects the general will: "The more concert reigns in the assemblies, that is, the nearer opinion approaches unanimity, the greater is the dominance of the general will."
• Conversely, discord reveals particular interests and decline: "On the other hand, long debates, dissensions and tumult proclaim the ascendancy of particular interests and the decline of the State."
• The apparent counterexample of Rome’s patrician–plebeian quarrels is resolved by noting that the Republic contained two bodies politic: "there were, so to speak, two States in one, and what is not true of the two together is true of either separately."
• He notes that when the plebeians deliberated without senatorial interference, their decisions were peaceful and majoritarian because they had a single common interest: "even in the most stormy times, the plebiscita of the people, when the Senate did not interfere with them, always went through quietly and by large majorities. The citizens having but one interest, the people had but a single will."
• Rousseau then describes a second kind of unanimity at the opposite extreme of political life: "At the other extremity of the circle, unanimity recurs; this is the case when the citizens, having fallen into servitude, have lost both liberty and will."
• In this servile unanimity, votes cease to express real wills and become mere acclamations: "Fear and flattery then change votes into acclamation; deliberation ceases, and only worship or malediction is left."
• He illustrates this with the Roman Senate under the Emperors, which expressed its views in a "vile manner" and even tried to conceal individual responsibility, as in Tacitus’s anecdote of senators cursing Vitellius while making a "deafening noise" so that, if he later ruled, he could not know who had said what.

Source Quotes

CHAPTER II: voting It may be seen, from the last chapter, that the way in which general business is managed may give a clear enough indication of the actual state of morals and the health of the body politic. The more concert reigns in the assemblies, that is, the nearer opinion approaches unanimity, the greater is the dominance of the general will.

CHAPTER II: voting It may be seen, from the last chapter, that the way in which general business is managed may give a clear enough indication of the actual state of morals and the health of the body politic. The more concert reigns in the assemblies, that is, the nearer opinion approaches unanimity, the greater is the dominance of the general will. On the other hand, long debates, dissensions and tumult proclaim the ascendancy of particular interests and the decline of the State.

The more concert reigns in the assemblies, that is, the nearer opinion approaches unanimity, the greater is the dominance of the general will. On the other hand, long debates, dissensions and tumult proclaim the ascendancy of particular interests and the decline of the State. This seems less clear when two or more orders enter into the constitution, as patricians and plebeians did at Rome; for quarrels between these two orders often disturbed the comitia, even in the best days of the Republic.

This seems less clear when two or more orders enter into the constitution, as patricians and plebeians did at Rome; for quarrels between these two orders often disturbed the comitia, even in the best days of the Republic. But the exception is rather apparent than real; for then, through the defect that is inherent in the body politic, there were, so to speak, two States in one, and what is not true of the two together is true of either separately. Indeed, even in the most stormy times, the plebiscita of the people, when the Senate did not interfere with them, always went through quietly and by large majorities.

But the exception is rather apparent than real; for then, through the defect that is inherent in the body politic, there were, so to speak, two States in one, and what is not true of the two together is true of either separately. Indeed, even in the most stormy times, the plebiscita of the people, when the Senate did not interfere with them, always went through quietly and by large majorities. The citizens having but one interest, the people had but a single will. At the other extremity of the circle, unanimity recurs; this is the case when the citizens, having fallen into servitude, have lost both liberty and will.

The citizens having but one interest, the people had but a single will. At the other extremity of the circle, unanimity recurs; this is the case when the citizens, having fallen into servitude, have lost both liberty and will. Fear and flattery then change votes into acclamation; deliberation ceases, and only worship or malediction is left.

At the other extremity of the circle, unanimity recurs; this is the case when the citizens, having fallen into servitude, have lost both liberty and will. Fear and flattery then change votes into acclamation; deliberation ceases, and only worship or malediction is left. Such was the vile manner in which the senate expressed its views under the Emperors.

Fear and flattery then change votes into acclamation; deliberation ceases, and only worship or malediction is left. Such was the vile manner in which the senate expressed its views under the Emperors. It did so sometimes with absurd precautions.

Key Concepts

• the way in which general business is managed may give a clear enough indication of the actual state of morals and the health of the body politic.
• The more concert reigns in the assemblies, that is, the nearer opinion approaches unanimity, the greater is the dominance of the general will.
• On the other hand, long debates, dissensions and tumult proclaim the ascendancy of particular interests and the decline of the State.
• there were, so to speak, two States in one, and what is not true of the two together is true of either separately.
• even in the most stormy times, the plebiscita of the people, when the Senate did not interfere with them, always went through quietly and by large majorities. The citizens having but one interest, the people had but a single will.
• At the other extremity of the circle, unanimity recurs; this is the case when the citizens, having fallen into servitude, have lost both liberty and will.
• Fear and flattery then change votes into acclamation; deliberation ceases, and only worship or malediction is left.
• Such was the vile manner in which the senate expressed its views under the Emperors.

Context

Opening of Book IV, Chapter II ('voting'), where Rousseau uses the conduct and outcomes of assemblies—both in general and via Roman examples—to diagnose whether the general will or particular interests dominate, and to distinguish genuine unanimity in free republics from the hollow unanimity of servitude.