第3章 Abstract

As the second turning of democracy theory，representative democracy creatively connected representation and democracy together.Even though the combination process has nearly costed two hundred years，it prompted representative democracy becoming the major model of democracy.However，with the development of representative democracy，it's facing enormous challenges from its own drawbacks，including theory and institution.One of core issues of these challenges is whether it can maintain consistency of popular sovereignty and minority rule or not.Rousseau，as the advocator of the principle of popular sovereignty，became to be a critical role in this debate.Therefore，the interpretation of his political theory has important value.

Since Rousseau advocated the principle of popular sovereignty and opposed representation，scholars of participatory democracy interpreted him as the supporter of direct democracy and the critic of representative democracy.On the contrary，liberal argued that the institution of people exercise sovereignty directly which Rousseau has advocated would bring the political disaster，and lead to the autocracy or totalitarianism.These two interpretations have a huge influence on the development of Rousseau's political theory.However，they have separated Rousseau's political theory，neglected the systemic and consistency of his political theory，and garbled his political principle and political institution design.On the premise that Rousseau's political theory is consistency，the article discussed the popular sovereignty and representative government from two dimensions which are sovereignty and governance power，in order to restore the panorama of Rousseau's political theory.

Rousseau's political theory first starts from the human problem，humanity is the logical starting point for the political community building.According to the climate of public opinion in that time，Rousseau adopted the traditional natural law's methodology to make difference between the state of nature and civil society.He believed that the natural person is good，and humanity's degeneration comes from society.Therefore，the purpose of political community is to realize the transition from the natural person to the citizen.Rousseau combined ancient republicanism and modern voluntarism together，and hold on that the legitimate political community must be based on the individual's free will and consent.The general will is not mean the denial on the individual's will，but mean that the citizen's public will is priority over the private will in public.Due to the distinction between public and private areas，as well as the retention of personal rights，the political community which is full of modern individualism in Rousseau's theory is different from the ancient community.

The principle of political rights is the core of community，and the institution is the tool to safeguard and maintain community.Rousseau designed the community's institution both from the dimensions of sovereignty and governance power.According to his understanding of popular sovereignty and representation，Rousseau divided sovereign representation and execute representation.He denied the sovereign representation and adopted execute representation，and then designed the sovereign democracy and representative government for political community.Because popular sovereignty is the soul of community，Rousseau insisted on the institution that people exercise sovereignty directly.Sovereignty must be exercised in the name of the people，but not by any person or by a group of people.In the operation of community，the specific representation of sovereignty is the legislative power，and the people exercise the legislative power through the citizens' assembly or the popular assembly.However，there is a difference between the principle of popular sovereignty and sovereign democracy.Therefore，Rousseau could adjust the institution in constitutional practice for better insisting the principle.The principle is eternal，but the institution is not static.

Rousseau distinguished the sovereign and the government.He advocated that government，as the strength representative of the people，is the intermediary between the sovereign and the citizens.The duty of government aims at helping the sovereign to carry out law and realize good governance.Although Rousseau insisted on the principle of popular sovereignty，he opposed the opinion that people can execute government's power.Representative government has overcome the drawbacks of direct democracy，and avoided the extreme populism.Due to the power of the government and the innate ambition for usurping sovereignty，Rousseau stressed that the sovereign have to reaffirm the authority to deter the government，and achieve checks and balances power to constrain the administrative departments through dividing the government internal power.In a word，popular sovereignty and representative government guarantee the community's harmony and stability.

Rousseau is not only a thinker who explored the principle of political rights from the ideal level，but also a lawgiver who constructed the political community from the reality.In order to better achieve his reality concern and practice political principle，Rousseau undertook the role of lawgiver，and carried constitutional projects for Geneva，Corsica and Poland.Different from the construction of the ideal community and description of political principles，according to the special environment and history，Rousseau followed the art of modern lawgiver and engaged in constitutional work from the perspective of moral，public opinion and civic education.In the constitutional work，Rousseau achieved a balance between ideal and reality，conditionally adjusted the institution of people exercise the sovereignty directly，and described how to balance of power to suppress the government's ambition.

Through the study of popular sovereignty and representative government，this research argues that the virtue and institution together support the political community that constructed by Rousseau.From two dimensions of sovereignty and governance power，Rousseau not only criticized the crisis of liberal democratic theory，in other words，the harm brought by the minority rule，but pointed out the the possibility of coordination with the liberal representative democracy，and how to guarantee freedom and equality of citizens from design of institution.

Key words：Rousseau；Political Community；Social Convention；Popular Sovereignty；Representative Government；the Lawgiver