A Brief History of European Libertarianism By Ian Geldard In its political connotation, the term libertarian is fairly recent. However, even without this appelation, libertarianism has been present for a considerable time. In the early 1640's English libertarian insurgents fought for Parliament and were victorious in 1645, but were defeated in a subsequent factional struggle; they thought they had recovered some ground in 1660, but soon became aware that this was a delusion. English libertarians finally triumphed - with foreign aid - in an insurrection organised by the Whigs, a loosely organised group whose ideological position was formulated by John Locke. There was little bloodshed in the 1688 libertarian insurrection known as the Glorious Revolution, but the ensuing change was radical. The convictions of English libertarians were shared by other Europeans in the seventeenth century. But they were either not numerous enough to challenge the tyranny that oppressed them, or were defeated it battles against it. Among the Czechs who in 1618 revolted against an oppressive monarch acting as the secular arm of an oppressive church, many were committed to tolerance, individual autonomy and self-government. But they were defeated. But England had set an example of libertarianism. A favorable situation developed in France - then the most important European nation - when, through accidents of births and deaths, easy-going rulers who had little interest in enforcing tyranny and conformity to the established church (first a regent then a young king) succeeded Louis XIV. Writers began to openly advocate libertarian ideas. The most influential were Montesquieu and Voltaire another was the economist and statesman Turgot. Tales of American success in establishing a republic founded on free institutions gave further impetus to libertarian influences in the 1780's. In 1787, Frenchmen thinking in terms of libertarian reform were numerous and influential enough to induce the King and his ministers to call an assembly of notables to make suggestions for reforms. Two years later the freely elected representatives met in the Estates-General. By rapid steps, agitation became a violent revolution. The first phase was dominated by libertarian revolutionaries who were responsible for the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the 1791 Constitution. There was only one election under the 1791 Constitution. It brought about four factions: those who were satisfied with the reforms that had been achieved (feuillants, among them Lafayette); those who advocated further reforms to achieve greater liberty (the Girondists, among them Tom Paine who had been granted French citizenship); the supporters of monarchial absolutism (royalists); and advocates of majoritarian dictatorship (Jacobins). The Girondists were so called from the department of Gironde, which chose for the Legislative Assembly five men who formed a libertarian faction in the Assembly. They were subsequently joined by Brissot (and were thus sometimes called Brissontins), Condorcet and the adherents of Roland. The influence of the Girondists ended with the election of the National Convention in September 1792. The succeeding phases of the French Revolution were characterised by violent authoritarianism in the form of Jacobinism (with which Europeans had a first taste of totalitarianism) then, after an intrval, of Bonapartism, forerunner of the charismatic dictatorships that were to come in the early twentieth century. At the apogee of Bonapartism in Europe during 1811-12, self-government and basic liberties existed only in Great Britain (and, limitedly, in Sweden). As the result of military defeats in 1812-15, Bonapartist dictatorships were replaced by limited constitutionalism in several countries (France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Congress Poland and a few of the smaller Germanic states) and by traditional despotism elsewhere. In 1815, Great Britain was still what she had been in 1688, the freest European nation. In countless European revolutions between 1820 and 1876, libertarians played an important, at times dominant, role: Libertarians launched several revolutionary movements in southern Europe in 1820-21, led the Polish insurrection against Russia in 1830, and won the brief Swiss civil war of 1847; Libertarians were the majority in the freely-elected constituent assembly which in 1848-49 tried, and failed, to reorganise the German states along the lines of constitutional federalism. Many libertarian revolutions failed, some were successful and had lasting effect (in Belgium in 1830, in Italy in 1859, in France in 1870, in Spain in 1874). Foreign support at times helped the libertarian cause (in Portugal and Spain when supporters of absolutism were close to victory in civil wars). Where there was no libertarian movement, foreign influence made possible the establishment of limited constitutionalism, for instance in the countries south of the Danube which achieved independence between 1822 and 1912. Defeats on the battlefield were important in weakening despotism in some major countries, thereby creating conditions favourable for the advance of libertarian ideas: in Austria-Hungary through the wars lost in 1859 and 1866, in France through the war of 1870-71, in Russia through the wars of 1853-56 and 1904-05. United in opposing tyranny and absolutism, libertarians often divided after major practical goals (a constitution, a bill of rights etc.) had been achieved. Mention has already been made of feuillants and Girondists in France in the early 1790s. Spanish libertarian revolutionaries of 1820 split into anileros and comuneros; German libertarians of the Bismarckian era into National Liberals and Progressives; Russian libertarians of 1905 into Octobrists and Constitutional Democrats (Kadets). In the German Weimar Republic of the 1920's there were the People's Party and the Democratic Party. At the end of the nineteenth century a clear cut division among libertarians appeared: on one side were Moderates, on the other Radicals. Moderates continued to stand for laissez-faire and individualism. They were the "liberistes" who were to become known as "classical liberals". Radicals, however, began to favour government action to cure social ills. These were the "dirigistes" who became "modern liberals." In the twentieth century, for one reason or another, Moderates tended to merge with Conservatives, and one section of Radicals after another joined hands with democratic socialists. +---------------------------------------------------+ | | FidoNet 2:254/151 | | Ian Geldard | Internet igeldard@sound.demon.co.uk | | | CIS 70734,426 | | | IGC igeldard@gn | +---------------------------------------------------+