第五章:法国大革命开启了什么
原书及其作者 :法国大革命,起于捍卫人权、推翻君主专制,却通向了恐怖统治和军事独裁。这个过程值得警醒。 系列上一篇: What it ended | 结束  ----- Chp5 What it started 1.Totalitarian democracy >p83  The Revolution began as an assertion of national sovereignty.  Nations—not kings, not hereditary elites, not churches—were the supreme  source of authority in human affairs. It was this conviction which led  the National Assembly in 1790 to declare that France would never make  war except in self-defence …… a new principle of political legitimacy  had been irrevocably launched, and within 100 years of the apparent  triumph of reaction in 1815, the sovereignty of nations had achieved  acceptance throughout Europe and the Americas. “国家主权(national sovereignty)”的概念,从此成为了几乎不再受到质疑的现代政治底层原则之一。不再是王侯将相即是国家,国家自此被认可为一种合法性来源于全体国民的独立政治实体。 但究竟是什么构成了“国家(nations)”?抽象的“全体国民”概念可比贵族或王室难以捉摸多了,这就像抽象的全民所有制总是很容易变成管理者所有制——权贵所有制。独立的“国家主权”作为一个概念是出现了,但是该拿这个概念怎么办?是通过意识形态或政治高压来操纵民意,还是少部分自封的先进革命者有权不惜一切代价去帮人们实现“真正的”幸福,还是如何确立一种投票和代议的复杂系统来尽可能的把握合法性来源…  落实概念比提出概念要更复杂,这就不是一本书所能囊...