Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Romantic Roots of Modern Democracy.

• Author: Gairdner, William

Political theorists have paid too little attention to the role of literature and the arts in the shaping of political ideals, and of no period is this more true than Rousseau's. This is a great shame, for "conceptions of the nature and purpose of art closely parallel man's conceptions of himself and of his destiny," [1] and they speak to us in ways far more compelling than abstract theory can do. Critics, when trying to trace the cause of modern political evils, often say "It's Rousseau's fault." In a sense they are right, but it is more broadly correct to say that the fault lies with a whole complex of popular ideas (only later described as "Romantic") that were already working powerful changes on the public mind through art, literature, and poetry. While it is true that the entire modern democracy movement has been indelibly shaped by the ideas of Rousseau, that is partly because he so effectively articulated assumptions that were emerging in his time and gave them enduring political expression. They were i deas about the nature of freedom and democracy that were transformed, and used (or misused) by others, such as Robespierre, in ways that surely would have shocked Rousseau. But it is for their susceptibility to use in such manner that they must be studied. Rousseau's political ideas were at once idealistic, "mystical," and collectivist. They became particularly dangerous during a time of social upheaval in the hands of people who had little perspective on the true nature and history of democracy and who therefore succumbed to its considerable powers of collectivistic mystification. There is a danger that in a period of chaos individuals may again be captivated by this appeal, as have so many past enthusiasts of democracy, and, like them, impose a tyranny in its name. The ideas so popular in Rousseau's time have not only found fertile ground and sprouted once again, but have mutated into an even more dangerous--because less obvious--hyperdemocratic form. In a hyperdemocratic society power no longer emerges fro m the people as a product or interpretation of their collective will. Rather, it derives increasingly from a cluster of disembodied concepts which, while ostensibly a logical extension of democratic theory, in practice are empty categories soon filled with particular meanings by experts who may use them against the people.

Rousseau's most important political treatise was The Social Contract (1762), a political matrix and symbol of a wider shift in ideas about the nature of reality, the self, and politics in Western society. The decades that followed the 1760s marked a transition from the Classical or "Neoclassical" and Christian ethos to a new, quite different, and consciously rebellious movement we have come to call "Romantic," which, in its most influential strains, was really an anti-Classical and anti-Christian set of ideas that will be my focus here.

A Romantic attitude of one kind or another has always existed. It was present, for instance, in the works of an ancient thinker such as Longinus. Over the centuries, however, this attitude was held in check by a Classical and Christian viewpoint. It was not until the Reformation's emphasis on individual authenticity and personal insight into the divine had been gradually secularized that conditions became congenial to the rise of modern Romanticism. This movement blossomed politically in France after Rousseau's death when it resulted in a riot of abstract reasoning during the French Revolution, by which time he had already been canonized as the high priest of democracy.

Rousseau's persistent influence.

What is of interest here is the connection between this eighteenth century Romanticism, the democracy madness that it fueled, and how this combination radically altered Western ideas about self, sin, and politics, producing new answers to such questions as: Who are we? What is the source of evil? How shall we live together? Although Rousseau's political influence--so deep that the Jacobins clung to his words as a kind of political religion--was soon dampened by the failure and chaos of the French Revolution, its spirit has arisen again and again in revolutions around the world. Indeed, Rousseau's formulations, though sometimes twisted and modified, have been used to justify everything from the totalitarian visions of Marx to the political despotisms of Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini, and Castro, all of whom insisted their movements were "democratic" in a much higher sense than our own. The Hippie movement of the 1960s was a romantic movement that fanned the flames of radical democracy across American campuses thro ugh such groups as Students for a Democratic Society. [2] The French riots of May 1968 had a similar inspiration. So did the softer radicalism of the welfare state in Canada. We know that Canada's former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had an intellectual fascination with Rousseau and repeatedly used the latter's favorite term, "la volonte generale" (or its variant, "the national will") to justify his socialism to an initially uncomprehending nation. [3]

To understand Rousseau, the Romanticism he inspired and also our own time, we first need some appreciation of the Classical and Christian ethos against which he struggled, why it bothered him so much, and why his intellectual rebellion refuses to go away.

Modern Classicism

The glory of the modem classical period was its rediscovery of ancient thinkers and authorities who were considered long suppressed by medieval Christian Europe. Partly due to the invention of printing these sources had become available to a broader public. This re-birth, or renaissance, of classical learning became retrospectively characterized as a new "classical" or "neoclassical" period that emerged in the mid-seventeenth century, peaked in the mid-eighteenth, and began its decline in Rousseau's own time, weakened by attacks from people such as himself. At the peak of neoclassicism, the philosophy, drama, poetry, and epic themes of the most important Greek and Roman writers dominated the European mind, especially in France.

Interestingly, across the channel, classical thinking had less of an influence. This was due in large measure to Shakespeare's wonderful work, which defied classification and...