Abstract
This paper presents Rousseau’s account of poverty as a means of demonstrating the connection between economic and political justice in his political writings. After briefly presenting some of the causes of poverty that he identifies, I look at three key features of poverty. Poverty is relative in nature, it adversely affects the virtue of the individual and the security of the state, and it demands both individual and collective response informed by equity.
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Notes
- 1.
This is contrary to the critique Proudhon and other nineteenth century readers of Rousseau offered. Proudhon argued that Rousseau provided no insight into the economic organization of society whatsoever, that Rousseau was concerned only with political rights rather than economic rights, and that Rousseau ignored labor relations and the rules for wealth acquisition. The view I present attempts to make the connection between Rousseau’s discussion of politics and his discussion of economics more explicit. For a careful study and analysis of Proudhon’s reading of Rousseau, see Noland 1967, 33–54.
- 2.
Rousseau proposes spontaneous festivals as the appropriate entertainment for a virtuous republic. See Letter to D’Alembert (1960).
- 3.
Sharon Vaughan conflates being poor and poverty in her account (2008, Chapter 4). In contrast, I argue that Rousseau distinguishes what Vaughan and others call “the noble poor” from those who become impoverished and oppressed by the luxuries and wealth of others. The difference, as I show, is most evident in the virtue of the poor and the lack of virtue or the diminishment of virtue in those who are impoverished by economic disparities. It is also worth noting that Rousseau had firsthand experience of poverty and, in both autobiographical works and political essays, valorizes the life and virtue of the poor.
- 4.
Jeff Noonan argues that Rousseau articulates a needs-based social morality distinct from the rights-based social morality of the other social contract theorists (Noonan 2006). The question of what constitutes appropriate needs, of course, is not really what is at stake in shifting the discussion from rights to needs. Each society creates its own set of needs based on social expectation for such things as labor, dress, housing, food, and entertainment.
- 5.
Rousseau does not use natural law as the basis for the social contract in the manner that Locke does. Nevertheless, in his stronger communitarian moments, he appeals to “the law of nature” and, more prominently, natural virtue. These appeals help to explain the nature and character of the citizens of the social contract rather than the origin of right or law. These latter emerge from the social contract, or, more specifically, from the workings of the general will.
- 6.
Nancy Hirschmann discusses the effects of poverty in the form of the exclusion of the lower classes (and women) from civil and political freedom (Hirschmann 2007, 124–127). Cohen, too, presents the problem of inequality for political freedom in his discussion of what he calls “the fundamental problem” (Cohen 2010, 24–32).
- 7.
Cohen also provocatively mentions that Rawls “once said in passing that his two principles of justice could be understood as an effort to spell out the content of the general will” (Cohen 2010, 2).
- 8.
It might also be worth noting that Rousseau is revealing some of his affinity for Hobbes here. Hobbes metaphorically links money to the blood of the body politic in Chapter 24 of the Leviathan. Rousseau, according to Richard Tuck, was aware of his similarity to Hobbes (Tuck 1996, xxxvi).
- 9.
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Scholz, S.J. (2013). Rousseau on Poverty. In: Stacy, H., Lee, WC. (eds) Economic Justice. AMINTAPHIL: The Philosophical Foundations of Law and Justice, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4905-4_2
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