ABSTRACT
Good; and if I am conscientious, I too must will the Common Good. Therefore I must will the General Will, and ex hypothesi the law which binds me. In a purely formal sense this is true. If by the Common Good we understand 'the best for everyone concerned'; and if the General Will is what anyone would will who willed the best for everyone concerned; then in conscience I cannot reject it. Everything now turns on whether the law is the best for everyone concerned, and there can be bona fide differences of opinion about this. But this is what Rousseau was reluctant to admit. He envisaged a common assembly seeking to express the General Will by a vote which decides what is the best for everyone. This decision binds not only those for it but also those against it-not as a matter of convention but of necessity. For what is decided is in fact best; consequently the minority must rejoice at having been prevented from making a mistake which would have deprived them of what they really desired.
