Between Utopia and Dystopia
The Problem of Popular Sovereignty in Kant and Rousseau
Abstract
Utopia and dystopia are brought together by Kant and Rousseau to the point of their indistinguishability: Dystopia is the reverse side of utopia, utopia that of dystopia. The essay traces this structure in Rousseau’s oeuvre – in Julie, the Discourse on Inequality and the Contrat Social – in order to uncover how Kant carried it forward in the Staatsrecht of his late Rechtslehre with regard to modern representative democracy and the problem of popular sovereignty.
Keywords
utopia | dystopia | Immanuel Kant | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | popular sovereignty | metaphysics of morals | discourse on inequality | Julie or the new Héloïse | social contract | dialectics of enlightenment | Utopie | Dystopie | Immanuel Kant | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | Volkssouveränität | Metaphysik der Sitten | Diskurs über die Ungleichheit | Julie oder die neue Héloïse | Gesellschaftsvertrag | Dialektik der Aufklärung