Читать книгу Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation. Reprinted from Green's Philosophical Works, vol. II., with Preface by Bernard Bosanquet онлайн

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71. Thus the 'government' is never the same as the 'sovereign,' and constitutions differ according to where the government, not the sovereignty, resides

72. The institution of government is not by contract, but by the act of the sovereign, and this act must be confirmed or repealed periodically

73. His distinction between the 'will of all' and the 'general will': the latter always wills the common good, though it may be mistaken as to means

74. He admits however that it may be overpowered by particular interests, and so find no expression even in the vote of a general assembly

75. What then is the test of the 'general' will? Absolute unanimity is what Rousseau requires of the parties to the original contract

76. But what is to decide whether their successors are parties to it? Not 'residence,' unless there is also freedom to migrate

77. The element of permanent value in Rousseau is his conception of the state as representing the 'general will'

78. Difficulties in this conception. It seems that either no actual state realises it, or that there may be a state without a true sovereign