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2 - Rousseau’s Proposal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2024

Geneviève Rousselière
Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
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Summary

Chapter 2 presents the conceptual transformation of republicanism that Rousseau operated while responding to Montesquieu’s challenges. In his writings, republicanism moved from an elitist theory based on virtuous self-sacrifice to an inclusive theory based on popular sovereignty and the rational interest of citizens. Rousseau developed a theory of republican citizenship as a shared intention toward creating and maintaining a community of free and equal beings—an inclusive theory of sharing freedom. Yet Rousseau’s theory has important shortcomings that plagued French republicanism after him. On the one hand, it presented a rational project of sharing equal freedom among all, but on the other, it emphasized particularism and nationalism as conditions of its realization.

Type
Chapter
Information
Sharing Freedom
Republicanism and Exclusion in Revolutionary France
, pp. 75 - 103
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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