Intro to Political Economy

1. Economy means lawful government of the household (Greek: oikos + nomos; English: house + law)
2. Political economy means lawful government of a people
3. In the household the father rules by nature: he is strongest, most able to provide
4. In the people, rule is arbitrary because society is not natural, and people are innately equal: no one is better than the other
5. Thus, the political economy is pure exchange: people demand things, authority promises others
6. Such an arbitrary system can lead to corruption because the ruler has no natural reason to love those he rules
7. For this reason, the ruler must be ruled by something else to keep his own particular interest in check
8. The sovereign therefore must be other than the government (the right to legislate versus the power to execute said legislation)
9. Since the political economy functions like a body, the body politic, it possesses a will, the general will, which seeks the good of the people
10. The highest good, or good of the most people, is just, so the general will, which seeks the highest good, is the most just rule
11. Therefore, the general will must be sovereign over whatever form of government a people chooses
12. But the general will is always in contention with the aforementioned particular wills
13. The particular wills of a person or group can be just in their own eyes, but, by contradicting the general will, be unjust in the eyes of the state
14. The question, then, is how to ensure that the particular will falls in line with the general

(Note: Both sides in a war deem their cause to be just because the general will of that state is to be victorious. Rousseau, more concerned with the national scale, ignores this quandary of international relations. The nation is an innately conflicting entity that cannot exist in a globalized world if there is to be lasting peace.)

ESSAY PROPER

Economy, from the Greek oikos and nomos (house + law), “originally meant only the wise and lawful government of a household for the common good of the whole family.” In this economy, the father rules, and so is responsible for the weaker members of his household. His power is “considered with reason to have been instituted by nature” and his duties “dictated to him by natural sentiments.”

In the introduction to his essay “Political Economy,” Rousseau makes the distinction between this private or domestic economy, and the political or general one. In the general economy, unlike the domestic, power is “purely arbitrary,” “founded only on conventions,” and upheld by “virtue of the laws.” Because of this, “laws and the public interest have no natural strength”: the people are “at the mercy of a master who has no reason to love [them].”

Rousseau refers to the political economy as the “body politic,” “a single entity […] organized similarly to that of a man.” Like a human body, the body politic has a will, the “general will,” which, like a human will, “tends always to the conservation and well-being of the whole.” The only way for the laws and public interest to have any natural strength at all is for the general will to rule. The common good of the body politic can only be ensured by the authority of the general will: it must be sovereign (the head of the body), invested with the “right to legislate,” so that the government (the brain), which has “the power only to execute,” will serve the people, rather than abuse it. If the brain is not united with the limbs the body dies; if the government is not united with the people, the body politic dies.

Justice, then, as implicitly defined by Rousseau is the rule of law which ensures the common good. It follows that the most just society is the one where the general will is sovereign, because the general will is most concerned with the common good. Nevertheless, conflict arises even in a system wherein the general will has such authority. The body politic “is composed of other smaller societies, of different kinds, each of which has its own self-interest and code of conduct.” The common good of a particular group can be in conflict with that of the whole group, and so, in the eyes of the general will, is deemed unjust. In this way a “devout priest” or “zealous lawyer” can justly perform their religious or legal duty while acting unjustly as a citizen.

For this reason, Rousseau emphasizes the importance of the general will acting as the head of society. Just as a monarch is more likely to act in the interest of the self than the public, so a particular group is more concerned with its own good than that of others. If the will of one man or one group is made sovereign, the laws that follow will serve a specific, rather than common, good.  (Note: In a brief aside, Rousseau comments on the complication of an international economy. As a particular group can pursue its own good unjustly when its interests conflict with the state’s, so can a state act unjustly in the eyes of another when their state interests conflict. Both sides in a war view themselves as right and just because rightness and justice in this sense are specific, rather than universal, concepts.)

Political Economy I

1. Object of lawful/popular government is the good of the people
2. To do so, must follow the general will
3. So the general will must be known
4. And distinguished from the particular will
5. For the general will to overrule the particular it must be ensured by governmental authority
6. But governmental authority can only be ensured when the general will is upheld
7. A means must be found to subjugate men while making them free
8. Only law can do this
9. The law must be mutually obeyed by everyone in the contract, without exception
10. This will only happen if the law is so just (in the good of the people) and useful that any rational being would willingly uphold it
11. Thus, the authority must influence the will’s of his people, rather than their actions
12. By following the laws himself, the authority, the administrator, demonstrates to the people what they must do
13. A good administrator does not force obedience from his people but makes his people want to obey the laws

Political Economy II

1. When the authority encourages his people to seek the general will over their particular ones, he encourages virtue
2. If the authority does not demonstrate virtue then neither will the people
3. When the people do not demonstrate virtue they see only to their particular interests and the general will evaporates
4. The general will is replaced by terror or vice
5. So how can an authority ensure the virtue of his people, especially since history shows example is not enough?
6. People must be taught duty
7. The most effective way to teach duty is to teach love of country
8. Love of country is the most manageable sort of large scale duty since international duty is too nebulous (see note from introduction: international relations are, for Rousseau, just too big to be practical)
9. To make people love their country they must be protected, have opportunity, have a home, and have liberty: he who provides this for man will be loved
10. To ensure these four, opulence and poverty must be avoided because they elevate the private interest: living simply is the best way man can participate in society
11. But just remember, duty requires freedom (protection, opportunity, home, liberty), freedom requires virtue, and virtue requires citizens
12. You need citizens before everything else
13. How best to train citizens? Public education, supported by authority and example