Specialization and the Division of Labor in the Social Thought of Plato and Rousseau

The differing attitudes of Plato and Rousseau toward specialization and the division of labor color their views on who should formulate policy on political questions. In the theories of each thinker, the observations and evaluations made in such areas of social life as the production and exchange of services and material goods are carried over and applied to politics. In particular, the striking difference in the locus of sovereignty in the utopias of the two authors can be traced, in part, to their different attitudes toward specialization. In Plato's Republic, Socrates explains the origin of the polis in terms of a logical reconstruction of history.' In this reconstruction, the division of labor is described as the source of organized society.