ROUSSEAU’S POLITICAL ECONOMY

While he did not write an economic treatise, Rousseau claims to have an economic system. This chapter reconstitutes the main tenets of his economic thought and lays out his critique of classical political economy. For Rousseau, economics ought to be subordinated to politics: it is an instrumental and necessary condition to the republican goal of securing freedom for all citizens. I interpret his republican economic thought as a ‘theory of arrest,’ critical of the nascent political economy in his time, instead of as a dogmatic agrarian theory.

Duke Scholars

Author Genevieve Rousseliere Political Science