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    The Revolutionary Tradition and Its Lost Treasure

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    Ensari Eroğlu
    The document discusses the revolutionary traditions of America and France and their differing views of freedom and action. [1] The American Revolution focused on political freedom and founding a new government through participation. [2] In contrast, the French Revolution aimed to end misery and inequality through rebellion and limiting government. [3] It failed to solve the social question of poverty and perceived action as tearing down rather than building up like the American tradition.

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    The Revolutionary Tradition and Its Lost Treasure

    Uploaded by

    Ensari Eroğlu
    1K views3 pages
    The document discusses the revolutionary traditions of America and France and their differing views of freedom and action. [1] The American Revolution focused on political freedom and founding a new government through participation. [2] In contrast, the French Revolution aimed to end misery and inequality through rebellion and limiting government. [3] It failed to solve the social question of poverty and perceived action as tearing down rather than building up like the American tradition.

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    The document discusses the revolutionary traditions of America and France and their differing views of freedom and action. [1] The American Revolution focused on political freedom and founding a new government through participation. [2] In contrast, the French Revolution aimed to end misery and inequality through rebellion and limiting government. [3] It failed to solve the social question of poverty and perceived action as tearing down rather than building up like the American tradition.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    1K views3 pages

    The Revolutionary Tradition and Its Lost Treasure

    Uploaded by

    Ensari Eroğlu
    The document discusses the revolutionary traditions of America and France and their differing views of freedom and action. [1] The American Revolution focused on political freedom and founding a new government through participation. [2] In contrast, the French Revolution aimed to end misery and inequality through rebellion and limiting government. [3] It failed to solve the social question of poverty and perceived action as tearing down rather than building up like the American tradition.

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    THE REVOLUTIONARY TRADITION AND ITS LOST TREASURE

    Hannah Arendt- On Revolution

     Revolution – a movement of revolving back to some pre-established point


    (restoration)
     Revolutionary spirit – public freedom, public happiness, public spirit
    - “to be a participator in government”
    - The act of founding the new body politic
    transformation of the meanings
    - The stability and durability of the new structure

     Revolutionary tradition
    - The influence or “non-influence” of the American Revolution upon the course of modern
    revolutions

    Liberation vs. Freedom


    - the condition of freedom (freedom from - participation in public affairs (Public
    freedom)
    unjustified restraints)

    Isonomy - (ancient concept of equality) - guaranteed equality, the Polis

    French Revolution
    • liberation of men
    • struggle over scarcity and inequality
    • transformation of the philosophy of history (historical necessity “necessity became
    the chief category of the political and revolutionary thought”)
    • “the social question” (poverty – a state of constant misery and want - “which put
    men under the absolute dictate of their bodies”) – inspired the multitude of the poor
    • Marx – transformation of the “social question” into a political force in terms of
    “exploitation” – “French Revolution failed to solve the social question”
    • Not freedom but abundance (misery and wants) became the aim of revolution
    • Constitution – to limit government (guarantee of civil rights and liberties)
    • perception of “action” – rebellion and tearing down
    • revolutionary tradition after the French Revolution – caused terror and absolute
    disaster

    American Revolution
    • practical experiences of the colonial period - remembrance
    • search for political freedom
    • no case of misery and want
    • the problem was not social but political
    • constitutio libertatis – foundation of freedom
    • constitution not to limit government but how to found a new one
    • perception of “action” – founding anew and building up
    • foundation of freedom but no space to exercise it – forgetting the political importance
    of townships the original springs of all political activity
    • critique of representation
    • the failure to incorporate the townships and their meeting halls into the
    constitution

    - Question of Representation
    o “The business of the government has become the privilege of the few”
    o Rotation in office highly valued by the Founders
     “elective despotism”
     lethargy and inattention to public business
     a public space only for the representatives of the people

    Ward System gradation of authorities:

    Elementary republics of wards County republics State republics Republic of the


    Union

    Sections of the first Parisian Commune and the sociétés populaires – spontaneously
    formed clubs and societies

    Parisian Commune of 1871 Russian Revolution of 1905


    - Marx - Lenin

    • They didn’t know the Jefferson’s ward system but they knew the revolutionary role the
    sections of the first Parisian Commune had played in the French Revolution.
    • They didn’t think of them as the possible germs for a new form of government.
    • They regarded them as mere instruments to be dispensed once the revolution came to
    an end.
    Professional Revolutionists and Revolutionary Parties
    - Lenin: “All power to the soviets.”
    - Bolshevik Party
    Party Systems:
    - Influence of the voters on the actions of representatives through interest groups and
    lobbies
    - At the expense of the wishes and interests of the other group of voters
    - The voters act out of concern with their private life and well-being

    Representative Government

    Oligarchic Democratic
    - “Public freedom” and “Public - The popular welfare and private
    happiness is
    happiness is in the hands of the few its chief goals.

    Party Systems vs. Council Systems


    (Representation) (Action and
    participation)
    (Both were unknown prior to the revolutions)

    - Never emerged during a revolution - Emerged during the


    revolutions
    - An institution to provide parliamentary - Sprang as spontaneous
    organs of
    government action
    - Substance of politics is not action - Failed to distinguish
    participation
    but administration and administration
    (working councils)

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