The Tragedy of Small Power Politics: Rousseau’s Considerations on the Government of Poland

In Considerations on the Government of Poland, Rousseau moves from the theoretical to the practical. Advising a group of Polish rebels as they work to avoid Russian conquest and assimilation, he examines how Poland’s internal political arrangements can respond to the challenges of international politics. While scholars debate the feasibility of Rousseau’s advice, I argue that Rousseau’s primary contribution is a theory of resistance. For small powers, acts of resistance and insurgency may be the only available modes of expressing agency, freedom, and ultimately survival. Strategies of non-participation and resistance reject traditional expressions of power and create opportunities for this postcolonial nation to express freedom and agency.