John Stuart Mill and the French Revolution of 1848
‘There never was a time when so great a drama was being played out in one generation’: John Stuart Mill and the French Revolution of 1848 Helen McCabe, University of Nottingham In this article, I want to argue that the events of 1848 in France both mark an important change in John Stuart Mill’s political philosophy and emphasise an important continuity. Joseph Persky has recently shown how Mill was consistently radical 1 , and the revolutions of 1848 serve both to highlight this continued radicalism, and to reveal the changing content of that radical programme. Mill always had a strong interest in French politics, and a long-standing commitment to the call for ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!’. He was a youthful enthusiast for the French Revolution (day-dreaming about being a Girondist in an English Convention2); an excited witness to the events of 1830; and a passionate defender of the ‘authors’ of the revolution of February 1848. This reveals both his consistency, and also the change his political philosophy underwent in the years – in particular – between 1831 and 1848, for when he wrote that the revolution of February 1848 embodied ‘all of “liberty, equality and fraternity” which is capable of being realised now, and…prepare[s] the way for all which can be realised hereafter’3, he was endorsing, not the politics of the Girondin, or the Orléanists, but what he terms ‘legitimate socialism’.4 The events of 1848 expanded Mill’s knowledge and understanding of socialist ideas – that is, of what socialism might mean – developing, in particular, his appreciation for a kind of socialism which came from working people themselves; could only be implemented by them and with their support; and which was possible within existing capitalist structures, rather than necessitating either their complete re-structuring (as Saint-Simonism would involve), or isolating the socialist community from the rest of the world (as in other, earlier, forms of ‘utopian socialism’ based on separatist intentional communities, e.g.
[Show full text]