Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Robespierre's Failings

Jean-Jacques Rousseau had often stressed the importance of counting all the citizens collectively as the sovereign, as opposed to the hereditary monarchs that ruled in his time that held both legislative and executive authority. The events of the French Revolution destabilized the powers that had once dominated the state by putting an end to the feudal system, abolishing the monarchy and undermining the traditional power of the French Catholic church. During the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715), in the absence of representative institutions, political influence had been condensed to the minor sector of nobility and bourgeoisie who had gathered privately in reading clubs or literary academies to discuss politics. 1 The lack of power in political culture had left the less privileged French majority weak and powerless, combating rises in food prices and poor transportation systems within the state. Rousseau's idea of liberty was of course at odds with the political framework of France. According to him people were only able to exercise their civil freedom if they had the ability to have a say in how they were being governed. A society under the control of one ruler would always be subject to his will since "he would remain a private individual, and his interest, always distinct from that of the others, would never be more than a personal interest" 2.

Maximilien Robespierre, a key figure in the French revolution, often reiterated Rousseau's concepts of civil freedom and general will. After Louis XVI's efforts in fleeing Paris had failed, Robespierre held fast to his Rousseaunian principles. Having put the revolution in danger in his attempt to garner supporters of the old regime, he was recognized as an enemy of the state. Robespierre advocated his execution, exclaiming that Louis "cannot therefore be judged, he has already been condemned, else the republic is not cleared of guilt" 3 .The absolute monarchy of Louis XVI had ended, and he was executed as "Citoyen Louis Capet". Robespierre has applied Rousseau's notions of civic freedom to Louis as a citizen of the state whose "life is no longer the bounty of nature but a gift he had received conditionally from the state" 2. The strict guidelines formed by Rousseau on the basis of the fact that "uncertainty of punishment encourages all the guilty" became characteristic of Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety's regime during the Reign of Terror.

Although Rousseau advocated a society founded on popular sovereignty and direct democracy, the National Assembly had set up a representative government instead, based on an electoral process. However, Robespierre continued to promote a central theme in Rousseau's writings; the regeneration of society to recreate a sense of 'virtue'.4 The revolution had come under threat from foreign invasion and civil war, and it seemed that Robespierre was restructuring and perverting the existing representative government to justify the use of terror against the counter-revolution, leading to thousands of deaths. Robespierre's own life was in danger when a woman by