Rawls and Rousseau's Political Projects: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

This paper provides a textual analysis of Rawls's Political Liberalism and Rousseau's On the Social Contract. It suggests that there are strong parallels between their two political projects. They share complementary ends and similar assumptions, expectations, and procedures. I conclude that Rousseau's political theory can be reasonable viewed as anticipating and influencing Rawls's political liberalism. Consequently, their theories can be understood as different sides of the same coin. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]