Ces fantômes qui donc nous gouvernent

The complexity of Alain Badiou‟s conception of democracy is reflected in his interpretation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. On the one hand, Rousseau can be seen as a revolutionary thinker as he always defends the idea that a truly political human organization has to start with an explicit and public declaration of allegiance to the group with a unanimous vote. Therefore, Rousseau
reveals the Event that must be thought at the early origin of any true democracy. However, on the other hand, Rousseau argues that Democracy is built on the „general will‟ that is nothing more than the mathematical result (the remainder) of the confrontation of all the self-loves of the citizens (and not of the groups) inside the urns. Using the fact that democracy confronts the self-loves in order to obtain the general will, not by construction, but by deconstruction of the
votes, the author challenges Badiou‟s interpretation of Rousseau and democracy in order to show how this remainder, because it has „always already‟ been there, can be seen as an Event, as it is nothing more than a spectre: literally, a ghost.