THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DEMOCRACY IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: PUBLICOLA CHAUSSARD AND THE DEMOCRATS UNDER THE DIRECTORY

Abstract

The French Directory (1795-9) was held up in a deadlock amidst the revolutionary wars, economic meltdown and electoral chaos. The democrats among the radical republicans devised plans to break this deadlock and steer France and Europe towards the 'democratic republic', which they regarded as the one correct means of genuinely ending the French Revolution. To present a case study of this democratic thought during the Directory, close attention is paid in this article to the political arguments deployed by the erudite Pierre-Jean-Baptiste Chaussard. His thoughts penetrate the heart of revolutionary theorizing about democratic manners, politics and political economy in surprising detail. Situated in the context of eighteenth-century Europe, where democracy was considered to be the least feasible form of government due to the passion-ridden nature of man and the character of the rising commercial society, Chaussard's political economy demonstrated the existence of a manifest revolutionary link to the Enlightenment debates on political economy and on the prospect of liberty in a world marred by war and jealousy of trade. This study shows that formulating democratic thought in the face of the predicaments of a republic at war was not simply about giving the vote to the people. To make the argument for 'democracy' persuasive in a situation in which it would have been easily regarded as political and moral insanity, Chaussard invoked and refined Europe's republican perception of man, history and government transmitted through the preceding centuries and transformed under the Revolution.