Rousseau's Radical Constitutionalism and Its Legacy

Abstract

This chapter offers a reconstruction of Rousseau's legal theory as an alternative to modern liberal constitutionalism. In particular, the chapter focuses on the political economy of Rousseau's constitutionalism: the constitutional function of private property and money are both addressed as key pillars of his constitutional doctrine. The chapter then briefly retrieves the traces of this radical aspect of Rousseau's constitutional doctrine in some Jacobin and Marxist authors.

Keywords: Rousseau; constitutional doctrine; private property