To return to Group Six's presentation from February 25th, 2003 on the French Revolution, I spoke about the intended consequences of abolishing the old regime, as evidenced by the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. This was approved by the French National Assembly on August 26, 1789.
First, it is important to focus on the purpose of the French Revolution. It was a time both of destruction and of creation; the Declaration of the Rights of Man was written in the hopes of returning to a better form of social organization.
Secondly, the National Assembly had specific goals that it wished to achieve by passing the Declaration. Primarily, it wanted to create an ideological foundation for the radical action of August 4th, when seigneurial rights and fiscal privileges had been abolished. Secondarily, it saw the Declaration as an educational device, which would instruct the nation's majority (commoners) on the necessity of restricting the monarchy through the specific process of defining citizens' rights. Hence, the preamble of the Declaration states: "The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly ... have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly before all the members of the Social body, shall REMIND THEM CONTINUALLY of their rights and duties...".
In examining the seventeen articles that constitute the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, there are several crucial themes that I highlighted in my presentation:
1- Article I: Social distinctions are viewed as functioning for the common benefit (not to ensure class or privilege as they had in the past). Therefore this idea that "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good" is based on Natural Law rather than on the traditional conception of the 3 Estates.
2- Article II: The definition of "rights" as "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression" is made by popular participation (the National Assembly) and will be preserved by political association.
3- Article III: Sovereignty is conceptualized as centered on the nation, with the nation's population as the source of political power and authority, instead of the monarch.
4- Article IV: Liberty is emphasized as the freedom from arbitrary power ("liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else" or "the exercise of the natural rights of each man" which allows the rest of society to enjoy the same rights), which is limited by law.
5- The majority of the Declaration focuses on the limits of law, as well as on the justification of prohibitions determined by the law. Thus, in Articles VI through XV, law is defined as the expression of general will, and its authority is based on virtue, rather than on arbitrary power. Laws are explained according to their limits, humanity, the liberty provided under law (the freedom to communicate ideas and opinions), as well as the manner of enforcing law. Most importantly, the function of the law is conceptualized as supporting the founding value of equality through taxes or "a common contribution" which is granted freely; the maintenance of national soveriegnty through public military forces; and the ability of society to monitor and evaluate the functioning of the law: "society has the right to require of every public agent an account of his administration [and to decide as to the necssity of the public contribution]." The centrality of law in upholding the new social order is greatly emphasized in Article XVI: "A society in which the observance of the law is not assured ... has no constitution at all." Lastly, Article XVII explains that property can still be legally held, without contradicting the stated values of equalizing past institutional privileges.
Overall, the Declaration articulates society's combined power through politics and their resulting creation of laws, which are used to define national citizens' rights (the concept of national sovereignty). Thus, politics are reenvisioned by the National Assembly as sanctioning the use of power to govern by the virtuous legitimacy of law, rather than appropriating power (as in the past) on the basis of arbitrary privilege. Hence, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen attempts to establish liberty that incorporates equality and accountability, which is created and enforced by law, thus ensuring a stable change of political and social systems.