Rousseau’s critique of market society: Property and possessive individualism in the Discours sur l’inégalité

Abstract

Recent studies have drawn welcome attention to Rousseau’s often neglected economic ideas and his analysis of market society, property and exchange. However, they usually attempt to reconcile Rousseau’s distrust of market capitalism with his proposals for ‘autarchic’ model domestic and political economies. This critical quest for a synthesis risks obscuring the contemporary salience of Rousseau’s critique of market society and its institutions, centring on the material and social forces that conspire to produce what C. B. Macpherson termed the ‘possessive individual’. I argue that when evaluated independently of his utopian model communities, Rousseau’s critique of market capitalism comes into sharp focus as a broadly compelling account of the psychological investments that lead individuals in market economies to consent to market systems, despite the presence of substantial inequality, disparities of opportunity and outcome, and other negative externalities. Rousseau’s critique speaks to contemporary concerns over rises in inequality and the concentration of wealth in advanced capitalist economies, as well as to the relative political complacency that has accompanied these changes.