A Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748–1830

Acknowledgments xiii Abbreviations xvii Prologue: Why Moderation? 1 Moderation in France? 1 The Main Questions 3 How Should We Study Moderation? 6 Outline of the Book 8   Part I: Visions of Moderate Government   Chapter One: In Search of a Lost Archipelago 13 The Many Faces of Moderation 13 The Skepticism toward Moderation 15 Moderation in the Classical and Christian Traditions 19 Early Modern Faces of Moderation 26   Chapter Two: The Architecture of Moderate Government: Montesquieu's Science of the Legislator 33 The Highest Virtue 33 The Complex Nature of Moderation 35 Moderation and Mixed Government 36 Moderation and Political Liberty 40 Penal Moderation and Montesquieu's Theory of Jurisprudence 43 Fiscal Moderation 46 The Constitutional Framework of Moderate Government 48 The Good Legislator and the Spirit of Moderation 54 How Can Democratic and Aristocratic Regimes Be Moderated? 60 Moderation, Pluralism, and Commerce 62 Helvetius' Warning 66   Chapter Three: The Radical Moderates of 1789: The Tragic Middle of the French Monarchiens 69 Who Were the Monarchiens? 69 Mounier, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Sieyes 72 "Le marasme du moderantisme" 76 "Fixing" the French Constitution 79 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 85 The Elusive Balance of Powers: The Debates on Bicameralism and the Royal Veto 91 The Dialogue between the Monarchiens and Burke 98 The Limits of Moderation in Revolutionary Times 103   Part II: Moderation and the Legacy of the Revolution   Chapter Four: Moderation and the "Intertwining of Powers": Jacques Necker's Constitutionalism 113 A Modern Cato? 113 The Impossible Reform of the Old Regime 116 Necker's Trimming Agenda 119 The Consequences of Immoderation 126 A Missed Opportunity: The Constitution of 1791 131 Necker's Critique of the Constitutions of 1795 and 1799 136 Overcoming Rousseau's Spell: "Complex Sovereignty" and Necker's Critique of Equality 146 Beyond the Separation of Powers: L'entrelacement des pouvoirs 150 The Failure of Virtuous Moderation? 154   Chapter Five: Moderation after the Terror: Madame de Stael's Elusive Center 158 Was the Revolution of 1789 Inevitable? 160 The Constituent Assembly and the Constitution of 1791 163 The Anatomy of Political Fanaticism 166 The Elusive Center 169 Rebuilding Representative Government: The Constitution of 1795 176 The Failure of Moderation and the Rise of Napoleon 183 The Charter of 1814 and England's "Happy Constitution" 189 An Enthusiastic Moderate 194   Chapter Six: Moderation and "Neutral Power": Benjamin Constant's pouvoir moderateur 198 An Enigmatic Character 198 Constant's Middle Way during the Directory 200 Moderation and the Republic of the "Extreme Center" 208 Limited Sovereignty and Individual Liberty 215 The Architecture of Representative Government 220 Neutral Power as pouvoir moderateur 227 Benjamin "nconstant" and the Paradoxes of Moderation 234   Epilogue: Moderation, "the silken string running through the pearl-chain of all virtues" 238 "Animated Moderation" 239 The "Decalogue" of Moderation 240 Notes 251 Index 319