General will
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In political philosophy, the general will is the will of the people as a whole. The term was made famous by 18th-century Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, populariser of the idea of the general will
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human and civil rights document from the French Revolution; the French title can be
General will
…was made famous by 18th-century Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The phrase "general will", as Rousseau used it, occurs in Article Six of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen), composed in 1789 during the French Revolution: The law is the expression of the general will…
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, a portrait by Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier
Print of the 17 articles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789 (Musée de la Révolution française)
Cartoon from 1791 mocking the distinction between active and passive citizens
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, by Jacques Louis David