ABSTRACT
Rousseau was one of those thinkers, fertile in ideas but, partly because of this fertility, confused in working them out, who have often had the greatest influence on subsequent theories. There are occasional phrases which suggest that Rousseau thought of the community as itself an individual person with a will and a good of its own distinct from that of the particular persons in it. Phrase alone is sufficient indication of the possible developments in the direction of totalitarianism and dictatorship which might be extracted from Rousseau’s thought. Rousseau argues that the General Will, because it is general, can command only in general terms, that is, make laws applicable to the whole community. The whole impulse of Utilitarianism as a reforming movement lay in its belief that the happiness of individuals could be secured only if the structure of society were satisfactory.
