AND MODERNPOLITICS :I.. W f he contours of the monarchy or oligarchy. Rather it was to modern world have been be the servant, the property of the defined essentially by people, the guarantor of the rights and two eighteenth century liberties of citizens rather than the departures from trad- regulator of subjects. The redefinition ition. The first, and without doubt the turned on the Revolution's reversal of farthest reaching of the two, was the so- sovereignty. In principle, at any rate, it called Industrial Revolution, which was the people who embodied heralded a gradual but irresistible shift to sovereignty, not the prince or monarch. a new mode of economic production The Declaration of the Rights of Man and characterised by apparently unlimited of the Citizen, promulgated in August, gowth, constant change as opposed to 1789, makes this quite clear in its stability, mass production and mass preamble, reminding us that the markets, the unprecedented growth of decisions and actions of legislators and urban society and the creation of the now administrators, the purpose of all familiar capitalist and wage-earning political institutions should conform to classes with their distinct and generally the basic principles of safeguarding the mutually hostile goals. inalienable and natural rights of man. It However, if we wish to grasp the followed from this redefinition of the origins of modern politics, the source of relationship of the citizen to the state that so many of our modern political all public offices should be filled by ideologies, it is to the second upheaval, elected citizens. who should then be the ~renchRevolution, that we must accountable for their actions. Certainly, at turn. For the turbulent 1790s in France different times during the Revolution, did not, indeed could not affect that Jean-JacquesRonsseau. different groups interpreted the elective country alone. The Revolution, through principle and the notion of accountability its ideals, slogans and transformations, briefly, some of the more important variously - the very restricted franchise particularly those exported after war legacies of the Revolution, whose two of the men of 1789 came under fire from broke out in 1792, left an indelible mark hundredth anniversary is commem- the popular strata who were excluded, on most parts of Europe. Try as they orated this year. but these 'took their revenge' in 1793 by might, committed opponents of the In the first place, the French enforcing daily accountability on their Revolution failed to eradicate its traces, Revolution marked a radical departure elected representatives, at thelocal level as the political history of the nineteenth from the past in its redefinition of the at least. Even at the height of the 'Terror', century demonstrates with such clarity It state. No longer was the state to be that period of war dictatorship, the war is the purpose of this article to indicate, instrument of control in the service of a cabinets, the Committees of Public Safety

A Versailles, A Versailles'- an engraving of the famous women's march of October, 1789, to demand bread; a practical piece of feminine direct action. Desmoulins brandishingpistols as he addresses the crowd outside the Palais-Royal. and General Security, had to have their personally or through their repres- do the same? Freedom was not restricted remit renewed every ten days by the entatives in its formulation'. to France. National Convention, the elected Personal liberty was also at the heart If the early phase of the Revolution representatives of the people. And it is of the Revolution's work. Here we see an was concerned with freedom and rights worth remembering that the Convention understandable reaction to the arbitrary of the citizen, war, self-inflicted in 1792, was able to topple Robespierre and his and repressive denials of what we would led to an extension of the role of the state associates when it became convinced that now deem to be basic human rights: once again. More than one commentator his policies were no longer appropriate. freedom of worship, freedom of thought, has seen in the First French Republic's The notion of popular sovereignty freedom of speech. The Revolution's war effort the orieinsV of modern was itself based on the most fundamental basic definition of freedom was totalitarianism, the subordination of the The 1 principle enunciated by the revolu- utilitarian and expressed in the individual's rights to the claims of the ? tionaries, the belief that 'men are born Declaration of the Rights of Man as state in a manner much more com- I and remain free and equal in rights' 'being able to undertake anything as long prehensive than any anci~nregime state desire , (Declaration of the Rights of Man and of as it does not harm others'. It was up to could have contemplated. Defence of the or her r the Citizen, article one). The notion that the law to ensure that one citizen's liberty Republic led to the mobilisation of the or alle man might be a citizen and might have did not curtail the natural rights of entire population in the war effort. It led freedof rights as well as obligations was a another citizen. These basic liberties did to rationing and to the Terror - the the na? dramatic shift of emphasis to a position make a significant difference. Men had enforced acquiescence of the population modei that we now take for granted. When the right to think differently than their in the national struggle on pain of havini taken in conjunction with the destruction landlords or employers, at least in law; ostracization, confiscation of property, traditif ot privilege announced on the night of 4 Jews and Protestants had the right to imprisonment and finally death. The or the! August, 1789, and defined on 11 August worship freely and publicly - no small concept of the sovereignty of the people from r somewhat less liberally, this proc- change given the forme$ monopoly of the was never lost, but the way in which it require lamation of equal and inalienable rights Roman Catholic church on religious was interpreted points very plainly to the the in was the cornerstone of the French matters, and the minimal concession of Bolshevik concept of the dictatorship of constit Revolution, and was a truly revolu- tolerance of the Protestant denomin- the proletariat in the sense that Cl0 tionary proposition as far as the nature of ations embodied in the 1787 Edict of democracy was set aside during a people politics was concerned. From it stemmed Toleration after a century of official crucial, transitional period, and effective politic1 logically the modern tradition of mass intolerance of ~rotestantism: leadership was entrusted to an elite respec politics and advancement based solely It is of great importance to note that which combined expediency with birth 4 on merit, of one legal system to be the rights and liberties set out in the ideology and justified its action in the nation' applied to all and open to all. During the declarations and decrees of the National name of the people. Or, in more general, doctrif course of the Revolution, the latter Assembly had a universal import. The but similar twentieth-century terms, one revold consequence, that of one law for all, revolutionaries were not talking about might see in the rule of the committees of inspij proved more acceptable to many than the rights of the Frenchman or of the the French Republic the prototype of demad did the notion of political democracy, French citizen. The 'lessons' of 1789 and modern war cabinets and dictatorships or nay although circumstances imposed this the ideals of the Revolution were which all place national salvation abo;e themsl from 1792 to 1795, and it was no more universal. This is what made the French thehmn%i rights and freedoms of the the R4 than a reasonable interpretation of article Revolution a European affair from the individual. natio! six of the Declaration of the Rights of very beginning. If the French could In these terms, the French Revolution loyalf Man which stated that 'The lwis the establish a political system based on the embodies all the ambiguities inherent in Revoll expression of the general will. All rights of man and on popular the relationship between the individual gened citizens have the right to participate sovereignty, why could other peoples not and the state in the modern world - the subs4 The most famous National Guardsmen were the volunteers from Marseilles who marched on Paris singing their famous song, the 'Marseillaise', which had been composed by Rouget de L7sle. A song-sheet illustrates the scene. desire of the individual to maximise his thought. Anyone who accepted liberty most compelling force in political life in or her freedom, and the need, perceived and popular sovereignty as the highest most parts of the world. or alleged, of the state to limit that values could style himself a French It should be said that the French freedom in the name of class interest or citizen - hence the citizenship conferred Revolution did not proceed according to the national interest, both of which are on Tom Paine, Priestly and Wolfe Tone. a preconceived plan. We should modern, ideologically based concepts There was none of the cultural, linguistic remember that it began as a reform having little or nothing to do with or racial exclusiveness associated with movement. Certainly, the reformers had traditional interests like dynastic claims many subsequent brands of nationalism. political ideals, but rarely did or the whims of rulers, and which, far It must also be said that the circumstances allow them to apply the from resulting from arbitrary decisions, Revolution promoted nationalism quite ideals in a thorough manner, or even to require the force of duly passed laws or unwittingly as German$ Dutch, Belgians hammer out the practical consequences the invocation of ideology and/or and Spaniards began to feel the presence of the ideals they proclaimed freely in the constitutional provisions. of the French 'liberators' as a burden in period before the war. Most of the ideals Closely related to the concept of the the later 1790s, when French taxation, became assimilated into the general people and the nation as legitimising requisitioning and conscription made p~blicawareness in the form of slogans - political values was nationalism. In many more of an impression than political the best known of which was, of course, respects, the French Revolution gave principles and fostered a growing anti- Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Drawn birth to the political doctrine of French sentiment which ultimately from Rousseau, Montesquieu, Locke and nationalism and did much to export the translated itself into the assertion of others, the ideas which animated the doctrine. The nation was adopted by the native virtues and values within the Revolution were for the most part the revolutionary state as a higher value to modern political and administrative slogans of an age, those of the inspire and coerce as the occasion structures instituted by the French. Enlightenment and the American demanded. It was assumed that peoples Nevertheless, the French Revolution Independence movement, with a number or nations throughout Europe could free firmly imprinted the notion of national of interpretations of the English 'Glorious themselves by adopting the principles of self-determination on the European Revolution' of an earlier century. the Revolution, and by substituting the mind. One has only to consider the WEETr~tgly,circumstances dictated the nation for the dynasty as a focus of number of nation states which adopted course of the Revolution. But this is not loyalty. It should be sai&that the the tricolour flag in emulation of the to say that slogans and ideals did not Revolution's concept of nationalism was French to appreciate the significance of play their part. The very vagueness of generous and benign in relation to the Revolution in creating and many of the ideals meant that they were subsequent examples of nationalist legitimising what is still probably the open to a number of interpretations, and they were indeed interpreted variously, industrial society, and the radical Perhaps the most successful Strand giving rise to profound conflicts about democrats had no notion of collective political thought to emerge from t the meaning of liberty and equality. If the ownership of the means of production. French Revolution was liberalism. better-off citizens stressed liberty, Certainly, East German, Soviet and entire thrust of 1789 wa meaning freedom from oppwssion and a French Marxist historians have explored emancipation of the indiv free market economy, the poorer strata of individual radicals with a view to corporative, legal and social French society sought freedom from finding forerunners of socialism, but Instead of a birth certificate, hunger and economic insecurity. While these have proved to be very tenuous wealth became the the better-off interpreted equality as forerunners: Jacques Roux, who was examination for political equal opportunities, irrespective of one's condemned by the Jacobin Convention in grounds that the acquisition of proper background, and equality before the law, 1793, was only demanding traditional or capital demonstrated an aptitude the poorer citizens interpreted it as fair state intervention on behalf of the needy; succeed and conferred on the subje shares for all, particularly during the Francois-Noel 'Gracchus' Babeuf stake in the social order. All of period of shortages imposed by the war. Revolution's formal texts betray These differe'nt interpretations have stress on the primacy of the indivi marked nineteenth and twentieth entrepreneur and property century political history in the form of 17 of the Declaration of the Rights of the political ideologies which can trace Man states that 'property is an inviolable their origins to one phase or another of and sacred right'. The constitution of the French Revolution. 1791 distinguished between active and A fundamental political legacy of the passive citizens, that is to say between' Revolution is the now familiar division property-owners or taxpayers and the between Left and Right. The origins of rest. The former could participate in the terms come from the positions taken politics according to their wealth, while in the National Assembly by progressive the latter had no role at all. The Le deputies (to the left of the president's Chapelier law of July, 1791, created desk) and by conservative groupings (to conditions for a free market, and the right of the president's desk), but the decrees governing the sale of national grouping of deputies reflected lands - essentially the ecclesiastical acceptance of and rejection of the notion property which the state took over when of popular sovereignty as the underlying the Church was dissolved as a classes, principle of the new regime. Obviously corporation - were undertaken in a way success there were shades of Left and of Right. which paid no attention to the public sentimt As the Revolution became more radical good but enabled individual constiti (and bloody), the Left fragmented and entrepreneurs to make lucrative tailor-n some 'Lefts' became more and more investments. dispens radical while some 'Rights' became more Saint-Just, Robespierre's With the brief exception of the Year I1 cosmopl reactionary. There is a clear difference faithful follower. (1793-94) when, in order to further the In WI between the political radicalism of a war effort and to defeat counter- the mof Saint-Just and the economic radicalism of envisaged in his conspiracy of equals no revolution, controls were imposed on political Babeuf, just as there is a difference more than a redistribution of food and prices, the Revolution encouraged the been a between the pragmatic opposition to the goods on the basis of fair shares for all. economically greedy and politically econom Revolution of Edmund Burke and the And how could it be otherwise? ambitious, putting individual success has flou theocratic opposition of Joseph de Socialism was a response to industrial above the common good, at the same variety Maistre. Nevertheless the French society even if twentieth-century time conscripting the common people in Conser Revolution marked the beginning of the theorists have applied it to agrarian defence of a regime which benefited only Kingd~ division between those who believed in societies. Nevertheless, the period of a fraction of the population. Even the Fail/P~ progress and in government as a social mass democracy, of the literal application Jacobin constitution of 1793, pro- Republi contract, the product of rational debate, of popular sovereignty, did much to pave mulgated and then set aside for the Besic and those who accepted human nature as the way for socialist thought. duration of the war effort - and never traditic flawed and incapable of producing its At the other end of the political implemented - declared the right to French own laws and organisation without spectrum, conservatism owes its property to be sacred and inalienable, politica constant reference to tradition, authority formulation as a political ideology to the only to be interfered with in the case of press, and religion. French Revolution. Edmund Burke was extreme national danger, and then to be pressur The most obvious Left wing heir to the first of many critics of the abrupt compensated appropriately. The only meetin the Revolution was the democratic rapture with the inherited past that brake on greed was the mealy-mouthed public republican movement which sought one- characterised most aspects of the exhortation in article six: 'Do not treat spectab man-one-vote and looked for its Revolution's political dimension. He another as you would not wish to be day's sc inspiration to the militants of the Year I1 argued that a sudden shift from political treated yourself. Ne fais pas a un autre ce in tern (1793-94), adopting the red cap of received wisdom could lead only to que tu ne veux pas qu'il te soit fait. History who freedom and the pike as its symbols. For chaos, to the loss of direction and has demonstrated amply that such progre much of the nineteenth century, continuity. Burke was one of the more utilitarian exhortations never prevented networ republicans were feared and persecuted moderate 'right wing' critics of the liberals from setting aside the 'rights' of Constit by European regimes until these Revolution. His European counterparts others, most notable, perhaps, in the Popula discovered that the introduction of adult adopted a much more ideologically name of economic liberty. from tl. male suffrage in the right conditions grounded stance. In general, however, In purely political terms, the liberal the caft could be a socially conservative measure, conservatives took the problems of the strand represents what the men of 1789 Increa notably after the emergence of socialist Revolution to substantiate their feeling t: political participation for the Peoplc movements with social and economic that change of any sort should be "3capab e~iddle classes, a constitutional audien demands. embarked on cautiously, with constant regime reflecting the American slogan of fellow It would be stretching %point to reference to tradition, certainly not in the 'no taxation without representation'. It Lobby identify any significant gource of arrogant way the French embarked on a had the advantage of excluding from becaml socialism in the French Revolution. total reconstruction of society relying political life both the old privileged techni Revolutionary France was a pre- solely on reason. classes and the dangerous popular The Jacobin Club: the premises of the Society of the Friends of the Constitution at the convent of the Jacobins in rue Saint-Honore'. classes. Liberalism also proved technology available to the late which would acknowledge the principles successful in exploiting nationalist eighteenth century. It was the Revolution of the French Revolution, explicitly or sentiment. New nation states with which introduced, in 1793, the through their constitutional provisions. constitutions were in most respects referendum, that magnificent device Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, tailor-made for the bourgeoisie, which permits governments to church-state relations proved to be an dispensing with the older, often more oversimplify grossly a question and to enduring source of conflict in many cosmopolitan landed elites. demand a crude 'yes' or 'no' reply, countries, particularly in those where a In western Europe liberalism has been accepting as final the majority decision of majority of the population adhere to a the most pervasive of the Revolution's whatever proportion of the electorate church which believes it has a right to political heirs. Since the 1970s, there has that cares to respond. regulate secular matters. In Europe and been a notable resurgence of a rawer, On a more important note, there is in parts of Latin-America, the French economically inspired liberalism which one aspect of modern political culture the Revolution has bequeathed a legacy of has flourished in many countries under a Revolution raised and failed to solve, anti-clericalism which has distracted variety of misleading party titles - the and which remains a contentious matter energy from other, perhaps more Conservative Party in the United in a number of countries. The important, areas of political activity, Kingdom, and Fine Gael/Fianna Revolution's religious polity was a diminishing in the process the con- Fdil/Progressive Democrats in the disaster. It was not a disaster because the tribution which both secularists and Republic, for example. revolutionaries set out to persecute churchmen could make to society. Besides bequeathing specific political Christians in general and Roman Finally, it should be said that the traditions to European politics, the Catholics in particular: The notorious French Revolution continues to provoke French Revolution created a modern 'dechristianizers' were a small minority animated debate on its relevance and political culture involving the use of the and were disowned by the government. influence. Marxists continue to press, clubs and societies, and the Rather, it was a disaster because it was emphasize its position in world-historical pressure of public opinion. From the first not thought out appropriately. The men developments as the classic bourgeois meetings of the Estates-General, the of 1789 wanted to remove the Roman revolution which brought a new social public galleries were filled with Catholic Church from its privileged class to prominence and paved the way spectators and commentatoys. After the position as a corporation within the state. for the growth of modern capitalism. day's session, the debates were analysed This measure followed logically from the Unwilling to accept the Marxist view, in terms of the issues and individuals Assembly's abolition of all privilege in other, mainly western, historians and who spoke. As the Revolution August, 1789. At the same time, the commentators, have played down the progressed, the establishment of the revolutionaries wanted to extend Revolution's social dimension and have network of Clubs of the Friends of the toleration to the sphere of religious faith. stressed variously its accidental character Constitution, the Jacobin Clubs and the Article ten of the Declaration of the or its place as part of a wider north-west Popular Societies carried the debates Rights of Man stipulated that 'nobody European democratic movement - this from the assemblies of the Revolution to should be victimised for their views, view representing in its extreme form a the cafes and streets of provincial France. including their religious beliefs, as long Cold War attempt to demonstrate a Increasingly, Representatives of the as these do not cause a breach of the 'natural' Atlantic solidarity. Whether it People realised that they had an peace as defined by the law'. In effect, the should be placed in either context or in audience far wider than that of their state was to become neutral in matters of- -@her, no other event in modern history fellow-deputies in the Assembly. religion. Despite the Revolution's has been claimed by such diverse Lobbying and street Aemonstrations mishandling of the Roman Catholic political movements as part of their became commonplace: h, short all the clergy and the latter's increasing tradition, and no other political upheaval techniques of modern politics were opposition to the revolutionary regime, has cast such a long shadow over the exploited within the limits of the this neutrality remains an ideal of states political development of Europe.