Can there be freedom without democracy

“Can there be freedom without democracy? How do the forms of government that Hegel and Rousseau propose provide freedom to human beings if not democratically? Do they succeed?”

-5-6 pages in length, typed double-spaced, 12 pt Times New Roman, MLA-style format

Better responses to the questions are those which make a clear argument, which are well- organized, which define their terms, which support general statements with specific examples and references to the texts in question and which answer the question posed.

Develop a view about what the text means, support that view by explicating individual passages, and then bring those passages into a larger focus.

Was Rousseau an individualist or an anti- individualist? Is he on the left or on the right? There is still great room for disagreement. Scholars publish on either side of these questions. The expectation is not to settle these questions definitely – but must establish the basis for what you say with textual evidence and interpretation. Attempting to avoid difficult interpretive questions and arguing something utterly uncontroversial can only result in a dull paper which summarizes without interpreting.

In addition to interpreting the text, you must also grapple with what you have found by incorporating it into a larger argument that is a response to one of the questions below. By this, I do not mean that you should spend the first 4 pages interpreting the text and then the next 2 pages answering the question. You should be answering the question from the start. The larger question should pose an interpretive issue to you (or a series of related issues) to which the paper is an answer.

You must summarize the central argument of your paper in one or two sentences, and in your title. If you are having a hard time titling your paper, then you probably don’t have a thesis. A poor paper will be titled, e.g. “First Paper. Question 1”.These questions are meant to provoke your reflections, not to structure your essay directly. Do not worry about answering each and every sub-question in order.

Paper Topic

“Can there be freedom without democracy? How do the forms of government that Hegel and Rousseau propose provide freedom to human beings if not democratically? Do they succeed?”