The general will beyond Rousseau: Sieyes' theological arguments for the sovereignty of the Revolutionary National Assembly

Cultural history's recent treatments of Sieyes' political theory have understood his political writings in their convergences with and divergences from Rousseau's political theory. By sketching a thoroughgoing analogy between the ecclesiological arguments in Malebranche's Entretiens sur la Metaphysique et sur la Religion (1688) and the arguments that Sieyes offers on the floor of the National Assembly concerning the nature of representation, I suggest that we should recontextualize Sieyes' speeches vis-a-vis the broader discourse of the 'general will,' which was theological at its root. That is, the arguments Sieyes offers for the sovereignty of the National Assembly, separately and in combination, appear to have been shaped by a malebranchiste ecclesiology that grew out of the particular context of the jansenist challenge to the Church. This argument has ramifications not just for our understanding of Sieyes and revolutionary political theory but also for what have been called the "religious origins of the French Revolution." (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.