Rousseau, Franklin and Bourgeois Liberalism

This article suggests that the anti-bourgeois, illiberal character of Rousseau’s political philosophy has been exaggerated. In order to illustrate this point, I juxtapose Rousseau’s thought with that of Benjamin Franklin, the acknowledged embodiment of bourgeois liberalism in the eighteenth century. Although Franklin and Rousseau are often cast as opposites today, in their own time they were commonly linked – with, I think, considerable justification. Without insisting that Rousseau had a direct influence on Franklin, I argue that Franklin’s moral-political thought was largely consonant with that of his supposed antithesis.