Rousseau on Agenda-Setting and Majority Rule
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3410249 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ethan Putterman (National University of Singapore, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 97 |
| Issue | 03 |
| Publication date | 2003-08-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0003055403000807 |
| OpenAlex | W2042579042 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
| References cited | 10 |
This essay examines the tension between agenda-setting and majority rule in the writings of one of the earliest and most original theorists of participatory democracy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Exploring Rousseau's views on lawmaking and the complexities associated with legislative initiation, specifically, this essay challenges the notion that representatives or legislative experts in a democracy inevitably reduce popular participation to acclamation. Contrary to authors who believe that Rousseau surreptitiously devolves political power to an elected elite who predecide a legislative agenda for a passive majority to vote upon later, I argue that the philosopher delegates authority to initiate the laws to representatives without undermining either the sovereignty or the robustness of citizen self-rule. This argument reveals, in part, why contemporary participatory democracy is not inherently “immobile” owing to the self-reinforcing benefits of democratic participation within a well-balanced constitution.The author wishes to thank Mads Qvortrup, Benjamin Wong, and APSR's Reviewers
Argument (complex analysis · Constitution · Democracy · Elite · Law and economics · Lawmaking · Legislature · Political science · Politics · Popular sovereignty · Power (physics · Rule of law · Sociology · Sovereignty · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Political Theory and Influence · Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought
Vontade geral e decisão coletiva em Rousseau
Shaping Internet Governance
Ethics expertise in political regulation of biomedicine
Democracy and the General Will
Rousseau’s Rome and the Repudiation of Populist Republicanism
Paradoxes of democracy
Theoretical Perspectives on Bureaucrats
Reforming Democracy
Emile the citizen? A reassessment of the relationship between private education and citizenship in Rousseau’s political thought
Rousseau on the People as Legislative Gatekeepers, Not Framers
Rousseau's Anti-Agenda-Setting Agenda and Contemporary Democratic Theory
| Citations per year | 0.52 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2005 - 2023 (19) |
| Highly cited | No |