Authors: Hermet, Badie, Birnbaum & Braud
Summary: In less than 300 words this entry focuses on the historical devolpment of the concept in France. Liberalism asserts political representation of multiple interests in contrast with the Rousseau's idea of general will and the hobbesian monist vision of society.
In France liberalism did not widespread that much and its theorists, such as Tocqueville, Constant, Prâvost-Paradol, looked at the Anglo-Saxon reality in conceiving this concept.
Against the idea of individual freedom as enemy for collective good, Constant replies that general will is formed by individual wills and that collectivities created prisons precisely in order to respect freedom. It is impossible to ask people to renounce to their own freedom exactly because it is the modern man's first need.
In France liberalism remained weak, unable to face the intransigent Catholicism, the organicistic reactions, the collectivist socialism, the republican vision of society as a community, and - not least - the presence of a strong state.