Abstract
Rousseau’s political science suggests three hypotheses for understanding the election of President Trump. First, he may be just the sort of “clever knave” or “insinuating talker” against whom Rousseau warns in the Social Contract; on this theory, Trump must be assumed to have duped the voters and be expected to disappoint his supporters. Additionally, Trump’s election to the presidency despite his never having held public office suggests a flawed institutional design. Second, the appeal of Trump’s nationalistic agenda accords with Rousseau’s claim that cosmopolitan ideals would not sustain a viable polity and that republican regimes would need instead to attract the patriotic devotion of the citizens; on this optimistic view, Trump would be expected to promote the common good of citizens, possibly at the expense of non-citizens and outsiders. Finally, Trump may perhaps represent the victory of a faction and suggest the fraying of our constitutional consensus (i.e., general will).
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Notes
- 1.
References to the works of Rousseau will appear parenthetically in the text. Page numbers are given except in the case of the Social Contract, for which citations indicate the book, chapter, and paragraph. The following abbreviations are used: CGP, “Considerations on the Government of Poland” in Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings, ed. and trans. by Victor Gourevitch (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997) [hereafter LPW]; DI, “Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men” in Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Discourses and Other Early Political Writings, ed. and trans. by Victor Gourevitch (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997); E, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or On Education, trans. by Allan Bloom (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1979); GM, “Geneva Manuscript” in Gourevitch, LPW; J, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Julie or the New Heloise, trans. by Philip Stewart and Jean Vaché, Collected Writings of Rousseau, Vol. 6, series ed. by Roger Masters and Christopher Kelly (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997); LM, Letters Written from the Mountain in Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Letter to Beaumont, Letters Written from the Mountain, and Related Writings, ed. by Christopher Kelly and Eve Grace, trans. by Christopher Kelly and Judith R. Bush, Collected Writings of Rousseau, Vol. 9, series ed. by Roger Masters and Christopher Kelly (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2001); PE, “Discourse on Political Economy” in Gourevitch, LPW; SC, Of the Social Contract in Gourevitch, LPW.
- 2.
In my book manuscript, The General Will and Constitutional Democracy, forthcoming.
- 3.
See, for example, Alexis de Tocqueville’s account of the various constraints on the French monarchy under the ancien regime, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, trans. Stuart Gilbert (Garden City, NY: Anchor Doubleday Books, 1955), 116–18.
- 4.
This enumeration is adapted from the introduction to The General Will and Constitutional Democracy.
- 5.
Rousseau, of course, supported the exclusion of women from the franchise; his arguments for that conclusion do not persuade, and it is noteworthy that he made no reference to them in the Social Contract.
References
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Emile, or On Education. Translated by Allan Bloom. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1979.
———. The Discourses and Other Early Political Writings. Edited and Translated by Victor Gourevitch. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997a.
———. Julie or the New Heloise. Translated by Philip Stewart and Jean Vaché. Vol. 6 of The Collected Writings of Rousseau, ed. Roger Masters and Christopher Kelly. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997b.
———. The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings. Edited and Translated by Victor Gourevitch. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997c.
———. Letter to Beaumont, Letters Written from the Mountain, and Related Writings. Edited by Christopher Kelly and Eve Grace and Translated by Christopher Kelly and Judith R. Bush. Vol. 9 of The Collected Writings of Rousseau, ed. Roger Masters and Christopher Kelly. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2001.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Translated by Stuart Gilbert. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1955.
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Reisert, J. (2018). Knave, Patriot, or Factionist: Three Rousseauian Hypotheses About the Election of President Trump. In: Jaramillo Torres, A., Sable, M. (eds) Trump and Political Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74445-2_10
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