Political Science · Western Political Thought
UGC NET November 2017 Political Science
Who described Rousseau as a totalitarian democrat?
AKarl Popper
BCarl Friedrich
CHannah Arendt
DJacob Talmon ✓ Correct
Correct answer: (D) Jacob Talmon — Rousseau was described as a totalitarian democrat by Jacob Talmon.
Explanation
★Rousseau was described as a totalitarian democrat by Jacob Talmon.
★Talmon argued the case in his The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy of 1952.
★He held that Rousseau's general will, claiming a single right answer for the community, can override individual dissent.
★A citizen who disagrees may be told he is mistaken about his own real will and forced to be free.
★Talmon traced from this a strand of messianic, coercive democracy distinct from liberal democracy.
★The reading is debated, but it marks the authoritarian potential critics find in the general will.
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