Jean-Jacques Rousseau's critique of representative governments in The Social Contract raises important questions about our own government. Clearly the United States allows representation of groups of people in the legislative process, so do we, as a nation, still exist? I think I can safely say, without quotes, that we do, in fact, still exist. However, leaving the question answered in this way would be naive and uneducational. For this reason, I will delve into Rousseau's arguments to decipher what he is aiming for when he writes: “…as soon as a nation appoints representatives, it is no longer free; it no longer exists.”(101) Hopefully, America still exists in the end. The key to Rousseau's argument about representation lies in his notions of general will, sovereignty, and the role of government. I will first examine these ideas, then demonstrate their importance in Rousseau's statement, and finally I intend to show what implications these all have for American "democracy." The first area I will cover is the most abstract of Rousseau's ideas. arguments and the most ambiguous in practice, this being the general will. The general will of the people refers to the sum of the differences of all opinions regarding the common interest. Therefore "...the general will is always right and always tends towards public advantage".(31) By defining the general will as the calculation of the social good, the measure of what is right, it becomes tautologically true that the general will is always right. With this limited notion of general will, the next step is to introduce sovereignty. Once the Social Contract is agreed upon, the body politic is given absolute power and, “…it is the same power that… .. middle of paper… based on the direct democracy that requires for the general will. Rousseau perhaps realized that his theories would not work in practice. With Peter the Great he reproached him because, in essence, he was not God, because Peter could not create from nothing. He expects a lot from the people and even more from the government. He never explains how the general will can be decided. Because Rousseau would not agree with the rules of the majority, the minority obeys, but a better system for doing what it wants could hardly be found. So, in the end, it seems that America still exists, as does our democracy (with all its representatives). Rousseau's argument, however, still exists and is a warning to those who do not take part in government, because even in a country with 250 million inhabitants, whether we have a good government or a bad one is always up to us..