Was the French Revolution the Birth of Modernity

The French Revolution was emblematic of the political and social changes taking place in Europe, and indeed the world given the concurrence of the American Revolution and the entrenchment of Enlightenment values. If modernity is defined by liberalism, the move away from church and king towards self-governance and the rise of reason, then the French Revolution could be considered one major aspect of the birth of modernity. However, it would be overly simplistic to claim that the French Revolution was the birth of modernity. Modernity was conceived as early as the Magna Charta, as Burke points out (134). As soon as the authority vested in church and monarch was deemed illegitimate or at least arbitrary, the seeds of modernity were sewn.
With modernity came a tremendous amount of self-reflection. Sieyes and Rousseau, for example, reflect on the notions of liberty and independence, the empowerment of the people as old system of power crumbled. The Ancien Régime meant the enslavement of the masses: “man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains,” (Rousseau 181). The French Revolution meant that the Third Estate had significantly more power and agency, even if it took several more centuries for that newfound power to become meaningful in terms of improving quality of life and truly enabling self-governance.
As Sieyes points out, the French Revolution also gave birth to one of the quintessential features of modernity: the modern nation-state. “Who is bold enough to maintain that the Third Estate does not contain within itself everything needful to constitute a complete nation?” (Sieyes 36). The modern nation-state is defined by its radical departure from the previous system, the Ancien Régime, or what Rousseau describes as the “first societies” with tyrannical rulers and authoritarian regimes. Instead, the modern nation-state is “a body of associates living under common laws and represented by the same legislative assembly, (Sieyes 37). The elite do not exude illegitimate authority, but neither is authority vested in “idle” masses that would create a tyranny of the majority either (Sieyes 37). In a modern nation-state, the majority of people enter into a meaningful, rational, organized social contract with political institutions that promote the common good.
Reconciling religious sentiment with new political systems was one of the challenges of modernity, according to Burke. Burke claims that England had attempted to strike a fine balance between “an established church, an established monarchy, an established aristocracy, and an established democracy,” a tall feat indeed (140). France took a slightly different and perhaps more volatile path towards modernity. The Revolution was bloody and at times chaotic, but did ultimately result in the establishment of firm institutions and a cohesive social order.
Modernity is defined also by the empowerment of the individual. Individuals can only be empowered if they have the means of self-improvement through education and the acquisition of knowledge. The church had held fast to information, which is why the church alone was able to centralize power and subordinate the Third Estate. Delegitimizing the church was the first step towards modernity, allowing the corruption inherent in the Ancien Régime to come to the surface. As the people recognized their ability to take up arms and revolt, the Revolution became possible too. All public services can be divided into “four known categories,” as Sieyes puts them: “the army, the law, the Church, and the bureaucracy,” (35). With the Revolution, the people—the Third Estate—could fill roles in each of these categories. The nobility and the clergy could no longer claim legitimacy. As the principles of the Revolution and Enlightenment philosophy became more widespread and commonplace, the age of modernity began in earnest. The legacy of the Revolution was to inspire the Third Estates of all areas to see how political, economic, and social institutions could become democratized.





Works Cited

Burke, E. “Reflections on the revolution in France.”
Rousseau, J.J. “Subject of the first book.” In The Social Contract.
Sieyes, E.J. “What is the third estate?”