Abstract

ABSTRACT: Rousseau develops a genealogical reflection on political domination. The intelligibility of the genealogy does not rest on the psychological category of craving for power. That is why Rousseau differentiates between tyranny and despotism. Rousseau stresses this difference in two works: Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité parmi les hommes and Rousseau juge de Jean-Jacques. Tyranny and despotism differ in that the latter produces an ideological speech. Political domination depends upon a double process. In the first process, ruling implies creating inequality in the political order, thus excluding people from political decisions. In order to mask this political inequality, the ideological speech produces two fictions: the fiction of the guaranty and the fiction of the community. In the second process, ruling implies generating public opinion which, in turn, adheres to this political order.