Youthfulness and Rousseau’s Anti-Pluralist Realism about Political Pluralism

Abstract

Rousseau’s attitude toward political pluralism is receiving renewed attention. Against the traditional portrayal of the utopian, anti-pluralist Rousseau, scholars today either explore how his theory of peoplehood supports an agonistic and pluralist vision of democracy or defend his realist willingness to accommodate the plurality of factions within a polity. Challenging both interpretations, I explore the oft-ignored relationship between legislation and what I call youthfulness in Rousseau’s work. The youthfulness of a people is the subconscious and unsophisticated national bond among its members. It is an outcome of their spontaneous interactions rather than an artificial creation. Unlike other conditions of legislation, which only determine how legislation should be carried out, youthfulness is the essential precondition for successful legislation. It determines if legislation can be carried out and thus sets limit to the Legislator’s creativity. This relationship between youthfulness and legislation reveals Rousseau’s anti-pluralist realism. It not only confirms that inevitable political pluralism need not undermine the unity of a society, but also questions our capability of sustaining the peoplehood of a society whose members refuse to recognize one another as compatriots.