Many of our current political discussions have become reflections on liberal democracy—what it is, what it ought to be, even whether it has failed us. Our questions are complex, but too often our characterizations of liberalism are not. Liberals, we are told, believe in individual rights, private gain, material comfort, and personal autonomy, and espouse an ideology that begins and ends with self-interest. If we want anything more, we will have to look well beyond what a liberal worldview can offer.
It's an important time, then, for the Liberty Fund's publication of the first complete English translation of Benjamin Constant's On Religion, a text that prompts us to ask what it takes to have and keep a liberal society. (It is also the subject of a symposium at the Online Library of Liberty.) During his life, Benjamin Constant (1767-1830) was a political figure known for his commitment to the cause of liberty. He opposed Napoleonic usurpation (he would eventually serve under Napoleon's administration in the hope of guiding the regime away from tyranny) and defended constitutionalism in pursuit of stable liberty for post-revolutionary France.
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