Thinking Totalitarianism :

           Nisbet’s Critique of Rousseau’s Political Philosophy

Nisbet argues that one can only understand the rise of authoritarianism and totalitarianism by first understanding Rousseau’s political philosophy. Nisbet characterizes Rousseau as a world-historic philosopher “from [whom] comes most of the intellectual devotion to the State that has made the political mentality so influential in social and moral thought during the past century and a half.” (Nisbet, p.153)
Nisbet identifies three key themes in Rousseau’s system that he believes taken together constitute both the ideology and the strategy underlying the momentous expansion and centralization of political power running through the 19th and 20th centuries. These are social individualism, political authoritarianism and humanitarianism.