Rousseau, Jean-Jacques - Judith N. Shklar (essay date 1969)
Judith N. Shklar (essay date 1969)
SOURCE: "'One Nation, Indivisible …'," in Men and Citizens: A Study of Rousseau's Social Theory, Cambridge at the University Press, 1969, pp. 165-214.
[In the following excerpt, Shklar discusses Rousseau 's idea of the body politic, one of his political personifications.]
THE POLITICS OF PREVENTION
The Great Legislator practices preventive politics in much the same way as the tutor gives Emile a negative education. Both create an external environment that will forestall the moral deformation that has been the lot of 'man in general'. Both also manage to create a deep attachment to themselves in their respective charges. Their influence is thus as profound as it is apparently effortless. There is, however, a rather obvious difference. The tutor is raising one child, while the Legislator is dealing with 'a people', that is, with a considerable number of adults. The startling fact is that...
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