General Will, General Interest, Invisible Hand

The decisive feature of Rousseau's concept of General Will is the introduction of General Interest as an explicit psychological factor, in contrast with which, Locke recognizes only Self-Interest as the motivation in a Democracy. Among those who attempt to accommodate Rousseau's innovation are Kant, Mill, and Marx, i. e. the universalization of a maxim, general consequences, and class consciousness, respectively. In contrast, inattention to it is often expressed in contemporary American political rhetoric, i. e. in the phrase 'the good of the country' uttered by an advocate of an ideology of Self-Interest. Likewise, while Smith's Invisible Hand is plainly inspired by Rousseau's General Will, he fails to incorporate the latter into his Psychological model, leaving his own version of the innovation fatefully ungrounded.