Original scientific paper

With or Without the General Will

Zoran Kurelić ; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

Author shows how the concept of the general will plays a central role in a certain type of liberal anti-totalitarian philosophy. Author confronts Talmon’s and Berlin’s criticism of the general will with Arendt’s understanding of the French Revolution. Talmon and Berlin argue that the concept of the general will was responsible for the totalitarian character of the French Revolution. Author uses Arendt’s comparison of the French and the American Revolution to ask a question: If the general will is intrinsically totalitarian does it mean that America is also totalitarian if one shows that for Madison and Hamilton the American constitution was the incarnation of the general will?

Keywords

Hannah Arendt; Isaiah Berlin; Federalist Papers; general will; liberalism; J. L. Talmon; totalitarianism; French revolution; American revolution

Hrčak ID:

22896

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/22896

Publication date:

26.7.2004.

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