THE SEARCH FOR A JUST SOCIETY
JOHN HUDDLESTON
GEORGE RONALD 1989
PART 13
The French Revolution
The French Revolution, like those in England and America, was the bursting into flame of social discontent which had been simmering for the best part of a century. One important cause was an unprecedented doubling of the population of France in the 18th century, putting great stress on the country’s food supply and food prices and contributing in the last part of the century to the growth of widespread unemployment. The situation was aggravated by the political, social and economic privileges of the Church and a numerically large aristocracy. Over a period of time the traditional deference to the aristocracy (going back to feudal times) was undermined not only by the blatant selfishness of the aristocrats themselves, but also by the rational ideas of the philosophers of the Enlightenment which became well known amongst the educated bourgeois.
The French philosophers of the 18th century, taking as their model the discoveries of the 17th century scientists, argued that there must be social laws, which if followed would lead to a society where the great majority would be happy. Jean François Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778), one of the most influential, held that it was the duty of rulers and philosophers to find these laws, to apply them, and to teach them to the general population. The sign of good government was the happiness and prosperity of those rules, not military success and empire. He recognized that the aristocracy and the Church had a vested interest in opposing such a process, because clearly a society organized on rational principles would have no place for their unjustified privileges. He argued that such a project could only succeed if there was real freedom of thought and public discussion, unrestricted by tradition and the abolition of torture and the other cruel apparatus of the medieval legal system. Voltaire crusaded on this particular issue, often at high personal cost, as for instance in the 1762 case in which Jean Calas, a protestant, was broken on the wheel because of accusations (later proved to be false) that he had murdered his son in order to prevent him from converting to Catholicism.
Another of the most influential philosophers was Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) who argued that the vast inequalities in wealth, and the system of hierarchy and privilege in government and society caused ordinary people to be passive and indifferent to their own interest. This in turn led to corruption and injustice. His solution was to divide society into small self-governing units and to insist on equality of all before the law. He recognized that such a society would only work if all citizens were well informed and had high ethical standards.
The philosophers, though very critical of society, were not necessarily revolutionaries. Indeed, some of their ideas were taken up by the so-called ‘enlightened despots’ of the period, of whom perhaps the most distinguished was Catherine the Great, Czarina of Russia 1762-1796, who took steps to abolish torture and otherwise humanize the law of her adopted country, and who devoted much of her energy to developing its industry and system of education. The ideas of the philosophers did not become revolutionary in France because the monarchy failed to follow the example of the enlightened despots and adapt to changing conditions. Revolution became more probable with the experience of the American Revolution, brought to France by soldiers who had fought on the American side.
- The immediate chain of events leading to the outbreak of revolution began soon after the end of the American War of Independence when the French government was struggling desperately to deal with the huge deficit caused by a series of long wars and an expensive style of life at the court on the one hand, and limited sources of income on the other – the latter largely because the aristocracy and Church were virtually exempt from taxation.
- At first the government tried the easy option of covering the deficit by borrowing.
- The government summoned an assembly of the nobility to agree to a tax on their lands,. The assembly refused and instead demanded that the King call into session the Estates-General (equivalent to Parliament in England), which had not met since 1614.
- The government agreed to the general population having 600 delegates while the nobility and Church remained at 300.
- After passionate debate the Third Estate decided not to disperse until France had been given a new constitution.
- On 27 June 1789 the King instructed other two estates to merge with it to form a National Constituent Assembly.
- On August 4 1789 the assembly voted to abolish feudalism and on the 27 August approved a Declaration of the Rights of Man, modelled on the United States declaration, which stated that all citizens had a right to liberty, equality before the law, property, personal security, and a voice in their government.
- It was decided that the vast lands of the Church should be taken over and sold off for the benefit of the state, with the clergy being paid a salary by the state, prompting denunciation by the Pope, which caused the King to flee the country.
- He was caught at Varennes on 20 June 1791 and brought back to Paris.
The 1791 constitution had as a preamble the Declaration of Rights, summarized in the revolutionary slogan ‘Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité’ – Liberty: the end of the absolute monarchy; Equality: the end of feudalism; and Fraternity: the state is the people or nation rather than a collection of vassals ruled by a monarch as a result of the accident of inheritance, marriage or conquest: hence Louis XVI was to be called King of the French instead of King of France. The last two principles took the idea of the just society further forward than either the English or American Revolutions which had been primarily concerned with only the first – liberty. The constitution guaranteed the right of petition, the right to emigrate, the abolition of extreme poverty through a new poor law and system of free education, and a rationalization and codification of the law. As in the United States, there was emphasis on the separation of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government. There would be one legislative assembly consisting of 745 deputies elected for fixed two-year terms. To guard against radicalism, the vote was restricted to men of property (about two-thirds of the adult male population).
- Voting was a two-step process, with election first of primary assemblies which then elected representatives to the national assembly.
- Constituencies were designed to minimise the influence of the big cities.
The powers of the executive, to be headed by the King, were to be severely restricted: he had no power to dismiss the assembly; his ministers could not sit in the assembly; he could delay but not veto legislation approved by the assembly; his control over the army and national guard was to be limited; and he himself was to be dependent on a civil list, i.e. his salary would be approved by the assembly. In local affairs the old provinces with their centrally appointed ‘intendants were abolished, and were to be replaced by a uniform hierarchy of departments (83), cantons and communes (44,000), each with its own elected assembly and executive. The judiciary were also to be elected independently of the other two branches of government.
- As the Revolution progressed opposition grew. Aristocratic groups moved into surrounding countries and plotted the overthrow of the new regime.
- In April 1792 war broke out, and for a period it seemed that the Great Powers of Europe would crush the Revolution.
- The situation was saved by a mass rising of the people to defend their Revolution, and in September the invading armies were stopped at the battle of Valmy.
- The King and aristocracy were suspected of treason. In September 1200 aristocrats and other unfortuates were massacred by a rampaging Paris mob.
- The King was deposed, arrested, put on trial, and in January 1793 executed.
- The ‘1793’constitution was put aside by the revolutionary leaders who felt a need for a centralized and powerful dictatorship to defend the Revolution against its enemies, internal and external.
- Many of the political reforms of the Reformation were rolled back, including ideas on the elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty, and democracy was replaced first by oligarchy and then by the military and absolute monarchy from 1804 to 1814 of Napoleon I (1769-1821).
Nevertheless, the Revolution had achieved much that was to last: the end of feudalism in France and elsewhere, a major step forward towards the idea of legal equality, as incorporated in the Code Napoléon, and the promotion of the idea of national self-determination which in the next 150 years was to capture the imagination of millions. Ultimately, however, the main lesson to be learned from the Revolution – that reform imposed by force will in the end be largely self-defeating – was not appreciated, and the mistakes made in France in the last decade of the 18th century were fated to be repeated over and over again. Perhaps the worst perversion was the twisting of the idea of national determination into one of oppression of others rather than one of brotherhood and enrichment of the human experience.
PART II: THE PRESENT AGE
The three revolutions of the 18th century were the prelude to a multitude of developments in the 19th and 20th which would touch upon virtually every aspect of man’s social life and lead to major advances in hopes and practices of a more just form of society. In the first instance, this movement had its centre in the West – that is, in Europe and other areas where European influence was strong, particularly the Americas and Australasia – and it was not until the 20th century that the movement became generally significant in other parts of the world. It was associated with the gradual emergence of the West in the 18th and 19th centuries as the most vital region of the world, particularly in technology and military and political power. Previously, Europe had always been relatively less important from a political point of view than the great civilizations of the Middle East and Asia, except for the few hundred years when Rome had ruled the Mediterranean basin and rivalled the power of Persia, India and China.
The three sections of Part II discuss advances towards a more just society with regard to (a) political and social equality, (b) reduction in material poverty, and (c) moves towards greater international cooperation and the effort to reduce warfare between nations.