Rousseau e as manifestações populares

Abstract

This article examines the criteria that determine the legitimacy of popular demonstrations in Rousseau's political thought. It can be said that, from the point of view of the law, in a legitimately constituted republic, demonstrations by the people are lawful when they are provided for in the constitution and formally convened by the government, both in the case of periodic and ordinary meetings, as well as extraordinary ones. In other words, spontaneous demonstrations and popular initiatives are excluded. However, at the end of the first chapter of Book IV of the Contract, Rousseau refers to the right of every citizen, which cannot be taken away, to express an opinion, to oppose, to discuss, to propose, a right that the members of the government want to keep to themselves. Here I intend to explore the question of the possibilities of popular expression in books 3 and 4 of the Contract and in letters 7 and 8 of the Written Letters from the Mountain.