The most important element of Rousseau’s philosophy is ‘General will’. Through this, Rousseau presented the solution to freedom, interests of the governance, duties, individualism, and completeness, etc. General will paved the way of public dominance and democracy. In order to clarify the ‘General will’, Rousseau described two types of will:
1. Practical will
2. Ideal will
1. Practical will:
This is the will of an individual based on selfishness. This is such a will wherein a person thinks of any subject under the inspiration of his personal interest. This ‘will’ is emotional, selfish, narrow, biased, discriminate, changeable, unstable and ambitious.
2. Ideal will:
This ‘will’ is based on charity of an individual. This is such a will which is beneficial to the entire society. In it, there is a domination of social interests over individual interests. It is not necessary that ‘General will’ is a will of majority. In fact, general will is the combination of all the ‘wills’ prevalent in the society. If an individual has ideal will, then it too will be termed as General will. In this way, Rousseau regards the real place of sovereignty in the combination of all, that is sovereign and that is nontransferable, inseparable, omnipresent and unlimited supreme authority.