Full Idea
To know what one wills, and even more to know what reason wills, is the fruit of profound cognition and insight, and this the very thing which 'the people' lack.
Gist of Idea
The people do not have the ability to know the general will
Source
Georg W.F.Hegel (Elements of the Philosophy of Right [1821], 301)
Book Reference
Hegel,Georg W.F.: 'Elements of the Philosophy of Right', ed/tr. Wood,Allen W. [CUP 1991], p.340
A Reaction
This is obviously directed at Rousseau, and seems to be specifically anti-democratic. Hegel sees the general will as a mystical fact, only knowable to some elite intellectual priesthood.
Related Idea
Idea 22794 A fully developed state is conscious and knows what it wills [Hegel]