Identity Theory (Political Theory)

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The identity theory is essentially based on the political philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). According to Rousseau, the social will must be none other than that of the naturally free human being; there must be an identity of individual will and common will.

The goal of an ideal society is therefore the union of individual interests to form the common will. This is intended to remove the difference between rulers and ruled ( people ). Rousseau's intention is to establish complete popular sovereignty (popular rule).

History of ideas

Rousseau's identity theory was directed against absolutism and formulated the ideal of free and equal citizens who vote in popular assemblies on the interests of the community without delegating this right to vote to representative bodies. Selfish interests should be filtered out of the volonté de tous , which is simply the sum of individual wills. This creates the volonté générale (common will) from which all citizens benefit.

Rousseau himself saw this form of will formation tied to narrowly defined prerequisites: an identitarian society could only function in very small states that were characterized by social homogeneity and that resorted to the means of conscious education for citizenship. Large territorial states, on the other hand, are not suitable for this form of government - here Rousseau suggests, in addition to the now necessary representative bodies, at least holding plebiscites on general laws at regular intervals.

Rousseau distinguishes the "will of all" (volonté de tous) from the "general will" (volonté général). The former is the sum of all private interests as it results in elections when everyone chooses the party that corresponds to his interests. The winning party wins over the loser. The "general will" arises when the voting is not bundled by parties, when "there are no special societies [parties] in the state and every citizen should only stand up for his own convictions". Today this would be called deliberative democracy . "If one subtracts the greater or lesser of these wills, which cancel each other out, then the general will remains as the difference sum" (Contract Social, 1762, II, iii)

In response to the question of how to convincingly differentiate the still particular will of the volonté de tous from the only correct total will, the volonté générale , theories have developed that are not based on an objectively predetermined or achievable total will, but rather the purpose of the state Seeing community in enabling diversity in society and in finding political decisions not through the uniformity of citizens, but through competition ( competitive democracy ) and majority decisions ( majority principle ). Thought leaders in this approach include a. Aristotle , John Locke or Immanuel Kant . This is where the origins of modern pluralistic approaches (“agree to disagree”) such as B. in the Federalist Papers or with Ernst Fraenkel .

Political reception

Identity theories entered both left and right thinking and became a point of contact or justification for political movements or systems that were willing to enforce their claim to power through dictatorship .

Example left reception

Karl Marx , for example, understood the final state of communism in the claim expressly as an “ association in which the free development of everyone is the condition for the free development of all” ( MEW 4, p. 482), i.e. precisely not in the sense of a one-sided subordination of the Individual among the community. At the same time, however, in the necessary transition phase towards this final state, Marx assumed the dictatorship of the proletariat , which, in contrast to the bourgeoisie (capitalist class), had to be enforced, if necessary by force. Marx himself assumed that the working class also made up the numerical majority of the population.

This notion of the “dictatorship of the proletariat” was then exacerbated by revolutionaries like Lenin , who replaced the element of participatory voluntariness that still existed in Marx with the model of an elitist cadre party who, as the leader of the proletariat, also led its dictatorship over other classes through an “educational dictatorship” tried to establish itself through the proletariat.

Example right reception

On the right-hand side, for example, Carl Schmitt justified the dictatorship as an expression of the true will of the people, no longer hindered by particular interests, which expressed itself through acclamation by the Führer principle, liberating the state from hindrances caused by individual interests and thereby really democratizing it. In every divergent form of political or social organization, the latent civil war and the incipient state collapse already existed . With Schmitt, the will as a whole has completely detached itself from the participation of the individual wills of people who now participate in the "volonté générale" solely through their willingness to provide support . From there, the path - which Schmitt also took - to justifying the totalitarian system of National Socialism was not far.

Criticism and controversy

Because of their radical potential , identity theories have always been the subject of heated political controversy since their inception. The theory of totalitarianism and the liberal philosopher Karl Popper have dealt critically with the risks of identity theories. According to Popper in his work The Open Society and Its Enemies , a policy that strives to establish an identity between the ruled and the ruling tends to lead in extreme cases to totalitarian rule ( totalitarianism ). Popper makes no essential difference between the “ national community ” of fascism, which has been brought into line, and the utopias of the political left based on the idea of ​​the emancipation of the individual .

Due to this comparison of left and right concepts of society, the theory of totalitarianism itself is the subject of fierce controversies within historical and political science .

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The example of Switzerland shows that freedom and the pursuit of identity and consensus do not have to be mutually exclusive. The Swiss political system is strongly shaped by Rousseau's theories and consciously sees itself as a direct democracy . In everyday political life, the representative bodies make decisions through consensus-building processes ( consensus democracy / concordance democracy ).

See also

References and comments

  1. ^ Rainer Olaf Schultze: Identitäre Demokratie , in: Dieter Nohlen, Rainer Olaf Schultze (Ed.), Lexicon of Political Science. Vol. 1: A – M , CH Beck, Munich 2005, p. 359.
  2. ↑ Alexander Schwan: Political Theories of Rationalism and the Enlightenment , in: Hans Joachim Lieber (Hrsg.), Political Theories from antiquity to the present , Bonn 1991, p. 227.
  3. ↑ Gerhard Göhler / Ansgar Klein: Political Theories of the 19th Century , in: Hans Joachim Lieber (Hrsg.), Political Theories from Antiquity to the Present , Bonn 1991, p. 537. Like Rousseau, Marx did not address the problem how a contrast between volonte generale and volonte de tous can be ruled out, or how one can empirically determine the difference between the two, cf. ibid. p. 540.
  4. ↑ See Klaus Roth: Kommunismus, in: Dieter Nohlen (Hrsg.), Lexikon der Politik. Vol. 1: Political Theories , CH Beck, Munich 1995, p. 614.

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