Reconstructing Educational Democracy: From Rousseau’s General Will to Agonistic General Will

• In Event: Democracy and Ethics

Abstract

In a globalized context, value pluralism and social divisions challenge traditional educational democracy theories. Rousseau’s “general will” provides legitimacy for public reason and collective identity in education but overlooks conflict and power dynamics, assimilating differences. Drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s “agonistic democracy” and Jacques Rancière’s “politics of dissensus,” this study proposes an “agonistic general will” to reconstruct Rousseau’s philosophy, shifting educational democracy from unified rationality to a dynamic process fueled by conflict. It reimagines educational democracy in three dimensions: schools as political arenas for generating public will, institutionalizing conflict to renew educational practices, and politicizing equality to dismantle hierarchies and amplify marginalized voices.

Author

• Yawen Xie, East China Normal University