Full Idea
If, when a sufficiently informed populace deliberates, the citizens were to have no communication among themselves, the general will would always result from a large number of small differences, and the deliberations would always be good.
Gist of Idea
If a large knowledgeable population votes in isolation, their many choices will have good results
Source
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.03)
Book Reference
Rousseau,Jean-Jacques: 'The Basic Political Writings', ed/tr. Cress,Donald A. [Hackett 1987], p.156
A Reaction
An obvious weak point in the electorate being well informed, if someone controls the sources of information. All the optimism of the Enlightenment is in this idea - that rational beings converge of the truth. All pubs closed in the month of an election?
Related Idea
Idea 95 If everyone believes it, it is true [Aristotle]