The Will of the People? Carl Schmitt and Jean-Jacques Rousseau on a Key Question in Democratic Theory

The question of how to adequately represent the demos in a democracy has always been an issue. Of the many different aspects in the debate between representative and direct democratic approaches, one key point of contention is thewill of the people. Here, an oft-overlooked question is what takes precedence: the will or the people. This article addresses the issue by examining Carl Schmitt's reading (and one-sided slanting) of Rousseau and how it has influenced today's debate in unacknowledged ways. In scrutinizing Schmitt's body of work and its particular development of the will of the people, I demonstrate that identitarian democratic concepts must ultimately remain trapped in a dilemma produced by Schmitt's reading-one that can only be resolved through representation.