What is General Will 2.0?

A book and an idea published in 2011 by the philosopher Hiroki Azuma. It argued that the "will of society as a whole" could be read from the traces of people's actions and words left on the internet, and put to use in politics. Azuma later withdrew his hopes for the internet, and now criticizes leaving politics to AI.

In an election, you choose among a few options once every few years. On the internet, meanwhile, records of many people's words and actions pile up every day. Could we read from those records what everyone really wants? General Will 2.0 is a book that posed this question in 2011. It is still often brought up in Japan when people think about AI and democracy.

In short

General Will 2.0 is an idea set out by the Japanese philosopher Hiroki Azuma in his 2011 book 一般意志2.0 (General Will 2.0). He argued that the "general will" (the will of society as a whole) of the eighteenth-century thinker Rousseau might be read from the records of words and actions that people leave on the internet [1][2].

In Japan, it is often named as a basis for thinking about approaches such as broad listening, which uses AI to gather and organize many voices. Azuma himself, however, later withdrew his hopes for the internet and has moved to the side that criticizes the idea of leaving politics to AI [1][3].

For example

The 2011 book. It collected a series serialized in Hon, the PR magazine of the publisher Kodansha, and was published in November 2011. Its subtitle is "Rousseau, Freud, Google". An English translation, General Will 2.0: Rousseau, Freud, Google, came out in 2014 [1][2].

A parliament like Niconico Live. In a 2012 conversation with Kan Suzuki, Azuma explained the model of a "parliament like Niconico Live Broadcast" that he had presented in the book (Niconico is a Japanese video site where viewers' comments scroll across the screen): a system in which every citizen can add comments in real time to the debates in parliament. Azuma says he built this into a draft constitution that he and his colleagues wrote [4].

The 2024 Tokyo governor's election. An announcement from Genron Café, an event venue, introduced Takahiro Anno, who ran for Governor of Tokyo, as a reader of Azuma, and said that Anno's election strategy showed the influence of General Will 2.0 and 訂正可能性の哲学 (The Philosophy of Correctability) [5]. Anno's campaign is covered in the article on Takahiro Anno's 2024 Tokyo campaign.

June 2025, "What is Plurality?" An event was held in which Azuma, as interviewer, invited Anno and Ken Suzuki and questioned, from his own standpoint, the vision of democracy of Tang and others [6].

In more detail

What the book said

According to the English edition's publisher, Azuma's argument goes like this. Far from restoring the "public sphere" of the past (a place where people debate as equals), the internet has completed society's fragmentation. So we should look for a way forward in what internet technology is really good at: collecting and processing the traces people leave without meaning to [2]. Rousseau's general will, Freud's unconscious and Google's technology are the clues [2].

Japanese Wikipedia summarizes the book as rereading the general will of Rousseau's The Social Contract as something that can be implemented in today's information technology environment [1]. At the same time, Azuma pointed out the limits of deliberation (making decisions by discussing things carefully) [7].

Azuma's own withdrawal

In 2020, Azuma looked back on that time. When he wrote the book, people expected the internet to change the world. But after the Great East Japan Earthquake the internet became what it is now, and today he can expect almost nothing of it — that was the gist [1].

Criticism of politics left to AI

In a 2022 essay, Azuma named the vision of using information technology to reflect the popular will in politics without going through humans "singularity democracy". He gave as examples the visions of Yuval Noah Harari and Yoichi Ochiai. He then announced that he would reread the general will in a form that does not lead there [8]. This was gathered into his 2023 book The Philosophy of Correctability, which Azuma describes as carrying on the theme of General Will 2.0 [9].

In a 2024 magazine article, he called the idea that AI could make politics semi-automatic "artificial intelligence democracy". His position is that he is in favor of using AI itself, but that expecting too much of it is a mistake [3].

Why humans are needed

In a 2022 debate with Yusuke Narita, Azuma argued that people do not change their minds unless they trust the other person's character, and that politics therefore cannot be replaced by algorithms (step-by-step calculation procedures) [10]. In another interview, he said, in effect, that the very idea that a stable society can be built by using AI to discern and satisfy people's desires is a fiction [11].

"Correctability" and Plurality

In March 2026, Azuma held a public dialogue with Audrey Tang. On the relationship between democracy and technology, Azuma put forward his key word: "there's a keyword I proposed in my book. I call it 'correctability'" (the ability to fix mistakes afterward). Tang responded: "In the book Glen and I co-wrote, we said that process must be inspectable, contestable, and revisable. Or as Mr. Azuma might put it: it must possess correctability" [12].

At the same event, Azuma also pointed to a tension. Politics cannot avoid the logic of distinguishing friend from enemy, and "this friend-enemy mode of thinking runs almost directly counter to the logic of Plurality" [12].

What is debated

It is not the origin of broad listening. Plurality attributes the idea of broad listening to Andrew Trask [13]. General Will 2.0 is one of the backgrounds for how the idea is read in Japan [6], but it is not directly part of Plurality's lineage.
Azuma's self-criticism. As described above, Azuma withdrew his hopes for the internet [1] and criticizes visions of automating politics with information technology [8][3].
A government that listens too much. In a 2020 essay reviewing a book by the sociologist Ryosuke Nishida, Azuma took up Nishida's analysis that a government overly sensitive to online opinion had piled up improvised "bold decisions". Azuma then wrote that, from now on, the demand that government listen to the voice of the people can itself become a risk [14]. It is not a piece about broad listening directly, but it touches on the dangers of listening to many voices.
Can AI facilitate discussion? At a three-way discussion in June 2025, Azuma said AI interviewing is fine, but questioned whether AI can serve as a discussion's facilitator, because people do not change their minds after hearing a machine's opinion. Ken Suzuki responded that AI's role is less to make people change their minds than to make chances to speak fair and help people organize their thoughts. Anno answered that a system that lets people talk with an AI about the published manifesto was gathering 2,600 change proposals. This record comes from notes taken on the day by an audience member, who adds that what the three have in mind differs [15].
The dangers of the idea of a general will itself. A report on the same event says that a point was raised that Rousseau's general will carries the danger of individual freedom and dissent being suppressed in the name of the people's collective will [16].

Where it fits in Plurality

Neither Hiroki Azuma nor General Will 2.0 appears in Plurality. The connection lies on the side of how the book has been received in Japan. For example, as seen above, Azuma held an event questioning Plurality's vision of democracy from the standpoint of General Will 2.0, and this book's influence on Takahiro Anno's election strategy has also been pointed out [5][6].

How it differs from broad listening. General Will 2.0 was the idea of reading the will of the whole from traces left without intention [2]. Practitioners of broad listening in Japan today, by contrast, stress that the voices gathered are not statistical public opinion, but material skewed toward those who spoke up, and that policy must not be decided from them alone [17]. In keeping its distance from visions in which AI decides the popular will on our behalf, it has points that mesh with Azuma's criticism.

Relation to the Nameraka Society. According to the announcement for a 2023 event, in The Philosophy of Correctability Azuma criticizes Ken Suzuki's vision of the Nameraka Society as possibly dangerous, in that it would erase human particularity from the political arena. The two go back to a study group Azuma led [18].

Team Mirai. Azuma has held several events with Anno. In an interview with the Asahi Shimbun after the 2026 House of Representatives election, he said he has hopes for Team Mirai but also sees its limits, pointing out that the party's lineup and its main supporters skew toward wealthy people and tech businesspeople [19]. The overall picture of how the book has been received in Japan is given in the article on the Plurality movement in Japan.

Sources

Wikipedia (Japanese), "一般意志2.0" (General Will 2.0) — https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/一般意志2.0 ［CC BY-SA 4.0］
Penguin Random House, "General Will 2.0" — https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/222504/general-will-20-by-hiroki-azuma/
Hiroki Azuma, Wedge (2024-10-30, in Japanese) — https://wedge.ismedia.jp/articles/-/35528
Kan Suzuki × Hiroki Azuma conversation (recorded 2012), part 2 (in Japanese) — https://webgenron.com/articles/ge006_05_02
Genron Café event announcement (2024-09-18, in Japanese) — https://genron-cafe.jp/event/20240918/
Genron Café, "プルラリティとはなにか" (What is Plurality?) (2025-06-26, in Japanese) — https://genron-cafe.jp/event/20250626/
Kan Suzuki × Hiroki Azuma conversation, part 1 (in Japanese) — https://webgenron.com/articles/ge006_05_01
Hiroki Azuma, "訂正可能性の哲学2、あるいは新しい一般意志について" (The philosophy of correctability 2, or on a new general will) (excerpt from Genron 13, in Japanese) — https://webgenron.com/articles/article20221020_01
Hiroki Azuma, "人工知能民主主義の誕生" (The birth of artificial intelligence democracy) (excerpt from The Philosophy of Correctability, in Japanese) — https://webgenron.com/articles/article20230922_01
Yusuke Narita × Hiroki Azuma, event report (2022-12-06, in Japanese) — https://webgenron.com/articles/article20221206_01
Ledge.ai, interview with Hiroki Azuma (2023-10-22, in Japanese) — https://ledge.ai/articles/azuma-hiroki-series-1
A Dialogue with Hiroki Azuma (2026-03-15) — https://archive.tw/2026-03-15-a-dialogue-with-hiroki-azuma ［CC0］
Plurality, 5-4 "Augmented Deliberation" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/5-4/eng/ ［CC0］
Hiroki Azuma, "耳を傾けすぎる政府" (A government that listens too much) (AERA, 2020-07-16, in Japanese) — https://dot.asahi.com/articles/-/87659
Hirokazu Nishio, "安野貴博×鈴木健×東浩紀プルラリティとはなにか" (Takahiro Anno × Ken Suzuki × Hiroki Azuma: What is Plurality?) (notes from the day, in Japanese) — https://scrapbox.io/nishio/安野貴博×鈴木健×東浩紀%E3%80%80プルラリティとはなにか
大月たけひろ, report on attending the event (in Japanese) — https://www.totsuki.org/entry/2025/08/07/102434
Broad Listening, chapter 2 "The Difference Between Broad Listening and Surveys, and the Shift from Quantitative to Qualitative Analysis" (Japanese and English) — https://broadlisteningbook.com/ ［CC BY-NC 4.0］
Genron Café, "なめらかな一般意志は可能か" (Is a smooth general will possible?) (2023-04-04, in Japanese) — https://genron-cafe.jp/event/20230404/
Asahi Shimbun, interview with Hiroki Azuma (2026-05-21, free portion, in Japanese) — https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASV5N2691V5NUPQJ004M.html

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