Editing General will (section)

==Translations of ''volonté générale''==
A central aclaration of Rousseau (Contrat Social II, 3) about the difference between ''volonté de tous'' (will of all) and ''volonté génerale'' (general will) is this:
{{blockquote|Si, quand le peuple suffisamment informé délibère, les citoyens nʼavoient aucune communication entrʼeux, du grand nombre de petites différences résulteroit toujours la volonté générale, & la délibération seroit toujours bonne. Mais quand il se fait des brigues, des associations partielles aux dépens de la grande, la volonté de chacune de ces associations devient générale par rapport à ses membres, & particulière par rapport à lʼEtat; on peut dire alors quʼil nʼy a plus autant de votans que dʼhommes, mais seulement autant que dʼassociations. Les différences deviennent moins nombreuses & donnent un résultat moins général.}}

The following translation <ref>https://www.constitution.org/jjr/socon_02.htm  Jean Jacques Rousseau, The social contract, 1762.  Translated 1782 by G. D. H. Cole</ref> is correct, but with one fundamental error:
{{blockquote|If, when the people, being furnished with adequate information, held its deliberations, the citizens had no communication with one another, the grand total of the small differences would always give the general will, and the decision would always be good. But when factions arise, and partial associations are formed at the expense of the great association, the will of each of these associations becomes general in relation to its members, while it remains particular in relation to the State: it may then be said that there are no longer as many votes as there are men, but only as many as there are associations. The differences become less numerous and give a less general result.}}
  
What has been translated as „decision“ – similarly translated in other English and German editions<ref>In Romance languages „délibération“ is simply translated by the Spanish „deliberación“ or the Italian „deliberazione“.
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Other German and English translations repeating this error:
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'''„Hätten bei der Beschlußfassung eines hinlänglich unterrichteten Volkes die Staatsbürger keine feste Verbindung untereinander, so würde aus der großen Anzahl kleiner Differenzen stets der allgemeine Wille hervorgehen, und der Beschluß wäre immer gut.“'''
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Der Gesellschaftsvertrag oder Die Grundsätze des Staatsrechtes. Leipzig [o.J.]. Originated 1754, revised 1758. First Print: Amsterdam (Rey) 1762. First German translation (anonym) under the title  »Gedanken von dem gesellschaftlichen Leben der Menschen oder Staatsrecht«, Marburg 1763. The text follows the translation by Hermann Denhardt of 1880.
Rousseau,+Jean-Jacques/Der+Gesellschaftsvertrag
www.zeno.org/Philosophie/M/R
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'''„Wenn bei den Beratungen eines hinreichend aufgeklärten Volkes die Staatsbürger keine Verbindung untereinander hätten, so würde sich der Gemeinwille immer aus der großen Zahl kleiner Differenzen ergeben, und der Beschluß wäre immer gut.“'''
Der Gesellschaftsvertrag  oder Die Grundlagen des Staatsrechts von Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Ins Deutsche übertragen von Fritz Roepke, Leipzig Juni 2011.
http://www.welcker-online.de/Texte/Rousseau/Contract.pdf 
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'''„Hätten bei der Beschlussfassung eines hinlänglich unterrichteten Volkes die Staatsbürger keine feste Verbindung untereinander, so würde aus der großen Anzahl kleiner Differenzen stets der allgemeine Wille hervorgehen, und der Beschluss wäre immer gut“.'''
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Der Gesellschaftsvertrag oder Die Grundsätze des Staatsrecht
https://www.textlog.de/2346.html
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'''"If the populace held its deliberations (on the basis of adequate information) without the citizens communicating with one another, what emerged from all the little particular wills would always be the general will, and the decision would always be good.“'''
The Social ContractJean-Jacques Rousseau, Jonathan Bennett 2017. https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/rousseau1762.pdf
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'''„If, when the people, being furnished with adequate information, held its deliberations, the citizens had no communication one with another, the grand total of the small differences would always give the general will, and the decision would always be good.“'''
„Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract and Discourses [1761] Translated by G. D. H. Cole, 1762
www.ucc.ie/archive/hdsp/Rousseau_contrat-social.pdf
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Note that  '''„the citizens had no communication one with another“''' is the condition for a normal distribution of opinions, the additive superposition of a large number of independent influences. 
</ref> – is by Rousseau „délibère“ and „délibération“. But a deliberation is not a decision, but a consultation among people in order to reach a majority decision. Therefore, the Roman principle:

:''Deliberandum est diu quod statuendum est semel.''
:''What is once resolved is to be long deliberated upon before.''