Chapter 1: Subjective Figures of the Crisis ... - Negri in English

people as a whole that stands above and thus transcends the "will
of all." A common good that all citizens must manage and make
decisions about democratically is not transcendental, like the
general will, but immanent to the community. Rousseau the
revolutionary', who even denounced private property' as a crime,
managed to establish the general will as a concept of authority'
only by imagining that, in order to be of ever}'one, it has to stand
above them all and belong to no one. This is why Rousseau's
notion of the general will is susceptible to statist and even
authoritarian interpretations. A common good, in contrast, is
something that must be constructed, possessed, managed, and
distributed by all. Becoming common is a continuous activity
guided by the reason, will, and desire of the multitude, which
itself must undergo an education of its knowledge and political
affects. In order to construct society and generate a constituent
process, then, citizens are not obliged to imagine and
subordinate themselves to an imperial general will but can create
the common themselves through a process that weaves together
the will of all.
Banks. In order to realize the constituent principles and
inalienable rights of the multitude, banks must become
institutions managed in common for the common good, and
finance must become a tool for democratic planning. We are not
interested here in the question of whether in some future society
money could be eliminated, but instead we want to focus on
some of the institutional activity required democratically to
manage the means of production and regulate the means of
exchange. Money serves as a means for the circulation of
commodities, for guaranteeing savings and assuring against
accidents and misfortune, providing in old age. We will consider
below how money must be democratically managed when it
becomes a means of investment, but right away we can say that it
should be banned as an instrument of accumulation. Money that
creates money is the ancient definition of usury, and today such
speculative financial practices should be equally reviled.
When we consider the role of banks, several constituent
principles come into play that were created by the struggles
against indebtedness and insecurity', such as freedom and
equality, access to the common, and the sustainability of social