A Comparative Study of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Concept of Freedom in the Social Contract and Mikhail Bakunin's Concept of Freedom in Anarchy

Abstract

The research article titled "A Comparative Study of the Concept of Freedom in the Social Contract of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Concept of Freedom in Anarchism of Mikhail Bakunin" aims to study, analyze, and compare the concepts of freedom according to Rousseau and Bakunin. In the research, it was clearly found that, on the one hand, according to Jean-Jaques Rousseau’s viewpoint, the real freedom is created by the way people are under the law which reflects on general will through the process of constructing social contract whereby it will become the essential key in establishing the just state. Under this, the state’s duty is to protect the freedom and justice by limitation of the oppression which would be precipitated by external force, on the other hand, according to Michael Bakunin’s viewpoint, he holds that the state is the enemy of freedom because the state is always inclined to control and oppress citizen and then he comes to propose that the state and various institutions should be wiped out in order to construct the anarchy which decentralizes the center of power where people can govern themselves completely. From the comparison of the proposed concepts of freedom, it clearly showed that although both Rousseau and Bakunin similarly aim at the creation of freedom to human being, yet their ways completely vary. While Rousseau is of the view that the just state can be used as the instrument leading to the promotion of freedom, Bakunin lays emphasis on the obstacle of freedom caused by the state. If both concepts of freedom are properly integrated, then it would establish the state that decentralize the power justly through following the general will which promotes individual freedom and the direct form of Democracy is used to decentralize the center of power including the protection of oppression done by the state.