¹University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point

^*The author wishes to thank the University of Wisconsin's Center for European Studies and the University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point's University Professional Development Committee for their funding of research related to this project. I would also like to thank Polity's anonymous reviewer for helpful suggestions in revising the essay.

Abstract

From the public burnings of the Social Contract occurring immediately following its publication, to Isaiah Berlin's condemnation of Rousseau as "the most sinister and most formidable enemy of liberty in the whole history of modern thought," Jean-Jacques Rousseau has rarely held universal favor among his commentators. The most common charge against him was, and remains, that he provided the essential philosophic tools for the modern tyrant. While this position has numerous and illustrious advocates, I argue that it fails to take into account the whole of Rousseau's thought. Specifically, it ignores his extensive attention to the problem of political power and his attempts to control it with checks and balances. In focusing on Rousseau's specific proposals in his Government of Poland, it is evident that the purpose of his system is to prevent tyranny, rather than to promote it.