“The general will is always right and tends to the public advantage.”Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Contractul social · 1762 · Cartea II, capitolul 3
The general will never errs in its aim, but the people can err in means.
Rousseau distinguishes between the general will, which always aims at the common interest, and the sum of particular wills, which pursues private interests. He claims its purpose cannot be wrong, yet immediately admits that the people can be deceived about the means. So the sentence is not a defense of blind majorities but of the intention to decide as members of the whole. Example: a community may vote wrongly on a measure, but if it votes as citizens rather than factions, its orientation toward the common good remains.
The card shows that the general will can err in means, never in aim. But how do you tell, in practice, whether a vote was one of citizens or one of factions? Rousseau offers a clue: the question each voter asks himself. If you ask what is good for everyone, you vote as a citizen. If you ask what is good for you or your group, you vote as a private person. Think of a condo meeting: someone proposing insulation with everyone's bills in mind votes differently from someone wanting only his own floor. Intention does not make the law, but it reveals the nature of the decision. One question remains: what happens when nobody asks the right question?
Why it matters It helps distinguish a collective decision taken for the common interest from one taken for group interests.