The possibility of self-government

Many have suggested that the findings of social choice theory demonstrate that there can be no "will of the people". This has subversive implications for our intuitive concept of self-government. I explore the relation between the notion of a "social will," that of self-government, and the impossibility theorems of social choice theory. I conclude that although the concept of the social will is essential to that of self-government, the findings of social choice theory do not cast doubt, my argument does of either. Unlike many attempts to the problematic notion of the common good.