The General Will is Citizenship [Hardcover]

Jason Andrew Neidleman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0742507882 | ISBN-13: 978-0742507883 | Edition: Inquiries into French Political Thought

In The General Will is Citizenship, Jason Neidleman advances a republican conception of citizenship, which is described and defended through a piercing analysis of the general will in the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, leaders of the French Revolution, and Restoration-era liberals. Neidleman explains that the "general will" is the will members of society have qua citizen, as opposed to the will they have qua private individual. It encapsulates tensions fundamental to egalitarian politics--tensions between individual autonomy and the collective good, between voluntarism and virtue, between popular will and rational will. Essential to the general will is its foundation in a conception of civic virtue, roughly understood as the subordination of private interests to the common good. Rather than appeal to universal reason or natural law, theorists of the general will look to the formation of citizens as the only way to secure justice and legitimacy, they attend to the social and cultural prerequisites to the flourishing of those principles. Consequently, all of the theorists studied in The General Will is Citizenship are concerned with the viability of democratic regimes and principles, as well as with the philosophical justification of those principles themselves. From within the framework of this dual emphasis, Neidleman constructs a picture of citizenship that both engages contemporary democratic theory and illuminates some of the more important changes and continuities in the French political tradition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A remarkably valuable book. (French History )

The ambitious scope of this book makes for a satisfying read. (History Of Political Thought )

The General Will is Citizenship is a splendid study on Rousseauean themes; it is intelligent, careful, and uncommonly well written. All Rousseau scholars are deeply in his debt. (Riley, Patrick )

About the Author

Jason Andrew Neidleman is currently a visiting professor of political science at DePaul University.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; Inquiries into French Political Thought edition (November 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742507882
• ISBN-13: 978-0742507883
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,429,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.