The notion of democracy in Rousseau and Hegel

Abstract

Democracy is one of the main concepts forming the focus of both political philosophy and political science. During the history of political thinking, some philosophical questionings have been raised related to this concept, and each philosopher formed a democracy notion based on their own political and social realities. In this study, based on the political and social facts, both Rousseau and Hegel's understanding of democracy has been the subject matter and their approach to the applicability of democracy has been questioned. In doing this, on the one hand, the reasons for why Rousseau regarded democracy as the best form of government even though it has some deficiencies in practice have been considered, on the other hand, Hegel's view concerning why he is against the spirit of democracy as a political regime have been discussed at length.