Go read Legitimacy or Unity (and BTW- I actually knew the Machiavelli stuff, but the Rousseau stuff is new to me)
ETA: Hey I said sort of the same thing here. And I also said it to the Kid, who then went and said it to his social studies teacher. Who didn’t get the point. Sad really the a 13 year old boy can understand that democracy needs opposition but a 40 something teacher of US History and government does not.