Liberalism under Siege The Political Thought of the French Doctrinaires

by Craiutu, Aurelian

• ISBN13: 9780739106587
• ISBN10: 0739106589
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-09-16
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

Liberalism Under Siege: The Political Thought of the French Doctrinaires is a compelling examination of the French Doctrinaires, a largely neglected group of liberal thinkers in post-revolutionary France who were proponents of a nuanced sociological and historical approach to democracy. It combines textual analysis and historical interpretation to explore the Doctrinaires' ideas on the French Revolution, democracy, political power, sovereignty of reason, publicity, capacity, and representative government.

Author Biography

Aurelian Craiutu is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he teaches history of political thought and modern political theory.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi
by Alan Ryan
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xvii
Chapter 1 In Lieu of Introduction	1	(18)
A Strange and Unfair Neglect	1	(8)
Between Archaeology and Renovation	9	(10)
Chapter 2 The French Doctrinaires and Their Epoch	19	(38)
A Golden Age of Political Thought	19	(7)
Who Were the French Doctrinaires?	26	(6)
"Lord Guizot"	32	(7)
An Enigmatic Figure	39	(6)
Between Pragmatism and Opportunism	45	(12)
Chapter 3 Between Scylla and Charybdis	57	(30)
The Return of Clio	57	(5)
Pluralism, Liberty, and European Civilization	62	(8)
The Charter of 1814	70	(5)
The Doctrinaires' Juste Milieu	75	(12)
Chapter 4 Democracy, Civilization, and the French Revolution	87	(36)
A Few Similarities and Differences	88	(5)
The Hidden Dialogue between
Tocqueville and Guizot	93	(7)
A Classic Comparison: France and England	100	(4)
Democracy as État Social	104	(8)
In Lieu of Conclusion	112	(11)
Chapter 5 The Sovereignty of Reason	123	(32)
Sovereignty in French Political Thought	124	(5)
Reason and will	129	(4)
The Sovereignty of Reason and the Sovereignty of the People	133	(6)
A Surprising Affinity: Guizot and Cortés	139	(3)
The Institutional Implications of the Sovereignty of Reason	142	(13)
Chapter 6 Political Power and the "New Means of Government"	155	(30)
A New Way of Conceptualizing Political Power	155	(7)
The "New Means of Government"	162	(10)
The Doctrinaires' Liberalism of Government	172	(13)
Chapter 7 The Battle for Representative Government	185	(32)
Representative Government in an Eclectic Age	185	(7)
The "Principium et Fons" of Representative Government	192	(5)
Guizot's Early Views on Representative Government	197	(6)
"The Word Representation Is a Metaphor"	203	(14)
Chapter 8 Representation and Political Capacity	217	(28)
The Goals of Representative Government	217	(6)
Political Capacity	223	(4)
The Triumph of the Middle Class	227	(4)
The Electoral Law of 1817	231	(4)
Rights and Capacity	235	(10)
Chapter 9 Publicity and Representative Government	245	(28)
Public Opinion and Publicity: The Eighteenth-Century Background	246	(3)
Publicity, Elections, and Political Representation	249	(7)
Freedom of the Press	256	(17)
Chapter 10 The Elitist Liberalism of the French Doctrinaires Revisited	273	(26)
Summary	273	(3)
French Liberalism: An Oxymoron?	276	(6)
The Liberalism of the French Doctrinaires	282	(5)
Rethinking Liberalism	287	(4)
"Gray Is Beautiful"	291	(8)
Bibliography	299	(22)
Index	321	(16)
About the Author	337