French Political Thought from Montesquieu to Tocqueville

Abstract

This study makes a major contribution to our understanding of one of the most important and enduring strands of modern political thought. Annelien de Dijn argues that Montesquieu's aristocratic liberalism - his conviction that the preservation of freedom in a monarchy required the existence of an aristocratic 'corps intermédiaire' - had a continued impact on post-revolutionary France. Revisionist historians from Furet to Rosanvallon have emphasised the impact of revolutionary republicanism on post-revolutionary France, with its monist conception of politics and its focus on popular sovereignty. Dr de Dijn, however, highlights the persistence of a pluralist liberalism that was rooted in the Old Regime, and which saw democracy and equality as inherent threats to liberty. She thus provides an alternative context in which to read the work of Alexis de Tocqueville, who is revealed as the heir not just of Restoration liberals, but also of the Royalists and their hero, Montesquieu.

El relativismo de gusto como problema en el siglo XVIII europeo: algunas propuestas inglesas y la solución aristocrática de Montesquieu

“…Allí, en efecto, se construye una vindicación de la aristocracia que funcionará como pieza central al mismo tiempo en la teoría política y en la estética y que, por lo tanto, se torna preciso revisar aunque sea someramente. Son numerosos los estudios que caracterizan el pensamiento de Montesquieu como "liberalismo aristocrático" (Touchard 1961;Althusser 1992;Annelien de Dijn 2008), un sintagma en el que sustantivo y adjetivo parecen contradictorios pero que marcará toda la teoría política del siglo XVIII francés. En tiempos de reconfiguración del absolutismo monárquico y de gestación de alianzas con la burguesía, De l´esprit des lois está concebido como una defensa de la nobleza como instrumento de libertad.…”

Competing for Liberty: The Republican Critique of Democracy

“…2; Scott 1993, 148–60). Fear of monarchy and fear of democracy also went hand in hand in the age of the French Revolution and were shared by moderate and republican thinkers alike (De Dijn 2008; Hartog 2000). For example, Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, whose works inspired many of the leaders of the French Revolution, declared Athenian democracy to be a very bad model because it gave Athenians an equal opportunity to compete for, and thus aspire to, all magistracies (Mably 1749, 51, 80).…”

A post-colonial reading of Alexis de Tocqueville’s writings on slavery and its aftermaths

“…Alexis de Tocqueville is sometimes celebrated as an admirer of the emerging forms of democracy in the United States, but at other times he is criticized as a conservative who was mainly concerned about the dangers of popular sovereignty and feared a 'tyranny of the majority' (De Dijn, 2008). This ambivalence in the appreciation of the French aristocrat has been reproduced, if not amplified, within the rapidly growing scholarship on his writings on the colonization of Algeria and on slavery.…”