Editing General will (section)

==Quotations==
'''Diderot on the General Will''' [emphasis added]:<blockquote>
EVERYTHING you conceive, everything you contemplate, will be good, great, elevated, sublime, if it accords with ''the general and common interest''. There is no quality essential to your species apart from that which you demand from all your fellow men to ensure your happiness and theirs . . . . [D]o not ever lose sight of it, or else you will find that your comprehension of the notions of goodness, justice, humanity and virtue grow dim. Say to yourself often, “I am a man, and I have no other truly inalienable natural rights except those of humanity.”  </blockquote><blockquote>
But, you will ask, in what does this '''general will''' reside? Where can I consult it? [...] [The answer is:] In the principles of prescribed law of all civilized nations, in the social practices of savage and barbarous peoples; in the tacit agreements obtaining amongst the enemies of mankind; and even in those two emotions — indignation and resentment — which nature has extended as far as animals to compensate for social laws and public retributions. --Denis Diderot, “''Droit Naturel''” article in the ''[[Encyclopédie]]''.<ref>''Diderot: Political writings: Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought,'' edited by John Hope Mason and Robert Walker (Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 20. Compare Rousseau: “Cast your eyes on all the nations of the world, go through all the histories. Among so many inhuman and bizarre cults, among this prodigious diversity of morals and character, you will find everywhere the same ideas of justice and decency, everywhere the same notions of good and bad” (''Emile'', 288, [IV 597-98]).</ref></blockquote>
'''Rousseau on the General Will''' [emphasis added]:<blockquote>AS long as several men assembled together consider themselves as a single body, they have only ''one will'' which is directed towards their common preservation and general well-being. Then, all the animating forces of the state are vigorous and simple, and its principles are clear and luminous; it has no incompatible or conflicting interests; the ''common good'' makes itself so manifestly evident that only common sense is needed to discern it. Peace, unity and equality are the enemies of political sophistication. Upright and simple men are difficult to deceive precisely because of their simplicity; stratagems and clever arguments do not prevail upon them, they are not indeed subtle enough to be dupes. When we see among the happiest people in the world bands of peasants regulating the affairs of state under an oak tree, and always acting wisely, can we help feeling a certain contempt for the refinements of other nations, which employ so much skill and effort to make themselves at once illustrious and wretched?</blockquote>
<blockquote>A state thus governed needs very few laws [...]<ref>''Of the Social Contract'', Book IV, Chapter 1, Paragraphs 1 & 2.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>However, when the social tie begins to slacken and the state to weaken, when particular interests begin to make themselves felt and sectional societies begin to exert an influence over the greater society, the ''common interest'' then becomes corrupted and meets opposition, voting is no longer unanimous; the '''general will''' is no longer the will of all; contradictions and disputes arise, and even the best opinion is not allowed to prevail unchallenged."<ref>''The Social Contract'', Book IV, paragraph 4.</ref></blockquote><blockquote>For this reason the sensible rule for regulating public assemblies is one intended not so much to uphold the '''general will''' there, as to ensure that it is always questioned and always responds.<ref>''The Social Contract'', Book IV, Chapter 1, Paragraph 6.</ref>
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