Abstract

This paper analyses the relationship between Rousseau’s political philosophy and the concept of democracy, while focusing on the debate about the admissibility of deliberation and discussion at the assemblies. After presenting different readings of Rousseau’s views of deliberation, we advocate from a distinction drawn between debate and discussion that the central goal of Rousseau’s political philosophy is not to avoid public deliberation, but to avoid or mitigate the influence of rhetoric in the public space. Throughout the paper, we also point out a series of comparisons between Rousseau’s democratic theory and ancient and contemporary political ideas, in this case, those of philosophers such as Plato, Tocqueville, Schmitt and Kelsen.