Essay Database

Rousseau and Totalitarianism Rousseau clearly promotes totalitarianism in The Social Contract, and hints at it in a few passages from his Second Discourse. He desperately attempts to lay down a form of government that eliminates any chance for the people to be victims. Rousseau specifically shows us the faults in the other types of government and tries to prevent them in his ideas. He wants to create a political situation where people have as much …

…almost total control to the government over all the members of the state. His views are very optimistic assuming that no one would take advantage of the power given. Some might even label him as wanting utopianism. Works Cited Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract. Trans. Maurice Cranston. New York: Penguin Books, 1968. ---. The First and Second Discourses. Trans. Roger D. and Judith R. Masters. Ed. Roger D. Masters. New York: St. Martin’s, 1964. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**