Introduction
The political theorist C.L. Wayper remarked that Jean-Jacques Rousseau's social contract is essentially 'Hobbes's Leviathan with his head chopped off'. This statement encapsulates how Rousseau democratizes the absolutist framework of Thomas Hobbes by transferring sovereignty from an individual monarch to the collective political community, while maintaining its absolute and indivisible character.
Shift from Monarchical to Popular Sovereignty
In Thomas Hobbes's formulation, individuals escape a solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short state of nature by unconditionally surrendering their natural rights to an absolute sovereign, represented as the mortal god or the head of the Leviathan. Rousseau metaphorically severs this monarchical head by instituting popular sovereignty:
- Alienation to the Whole: In Rousseau's social contract, individuals do not surrender their liberty to an external ruler; rather, each individual surrenders all rights to the entire community.
- Preservation of Moral Liberty: As Rousseau formulated, by giving oneself to all, an individual gives oneself to nobody, thus remaining as free as before while gaining civil and moral freedom.
The Absolutism of the General Will
Although the personal monarch is removed, the structural absolutism of Hobbesian sovereignty persists within Rousseau's political philosophy:
- Indivisible and Infallible: Rousseau's General Will possesses the same supreme, indivisible, and inalienable authority that Hobbes granted to his sovereign ruler.
- Coercive Authority: As political philosopher G.H. Sabine noted, Rousseau's famous assertion that dissenters must be 'forced to be free' mirrors Hobbesian coercion dressed in democratic rhetoric, denying legitimacy to individual disagreement.
The Trajectory Toward Totalitarian Democracy
By unifying the ruler and the ruled into a singular metaphysical entity, Rousseau's framework removes constitutional checks and protections for individual liberty:
- Erosion of Dissent: Because the General Will is held to be always right, any divergence from it is viewed as moral error rather than legitimate political expression.
- Totalitarian Democracy: J.L. Talmon, in The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, argues that subordinating individual will entirely to an organic collective transforms Rousseau's General Will into a foundation for majoritarian authoritarianism, effectively establishing a collective, headless Leviathan.
Conclusion
Rousseau does not dismantle absolute sovereignty; he merely relocates its seat from an external autocrat to an omnipresent collective body. In replacing an individual tyrant with the collective community, Rousseau constructs a popular Leviathan where the sovereign will of the state remains absolute, indivisible, and omnipotent.