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PERSUASION AND THE SOCIAL VISION IN ROBESPIERRE AND SAINT-JUST Will Slater Alex Holden

PERSUASION AND THE SOCIAL VISION IN ROBESPIERRE AND SAINT-JUST Will Slater Alex Holden. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT. Fear that the Revolution’s momentum had started to stall Royalist and counter-revolutionary armies further South Number of moderates beginning to sway

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PERSUASION AND THE SOCIAL VISION IN ROBESPIERRE AND SAINT-JUST Will Slater Alex Holden

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  1. PERSUASION AND THE SOCIAL VISION IN ROBESPIERRE AND SAINT-JUST Will Slater Alex Holden

  2. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT • Fear that the Revolution’s momentum had started to stall • Royalist and counter-revolutionary armies further South • Number of moderates beginning to sway • Concern from la Montaigne and the Jacobins about a shift in power

  3. ROUSSEAU’S INFLUENCE • Jean-Jacques Rousseau as established influence on both men • Key idea of submitting to the authority of the general will • Principles of democracy, virtue and natural goodness of man • Robespierre adopted his theory of revolution as an issue of morality

  4. SAINT-JUSTBACKGROUND • Notoriously disciplined, zealous and ruthless • Began more moderately, praising the democracy of the Assembly • Became influential among the Jacobins. • Committee of Public Safety, 1793

  5. ROBESPIERRE BACKGROUND • Prolific writer and eloquent orator during the Revolution • Initial unpopularity in Constituent Assembly for radical egalitarian ideals • Influential member of Jacobins • Member of Committee of Public Safety

  6. REVOLUTIONARYVOCABULARY ANDCUSTOMS • The use of citoyen and tutoiement • Change of official calendar • The Dechristianisation of the country • Collective vocabulary.

  7. THE NEED FOR A STRONG LEADERSHIP • Risk of fragmentation from revolutionaries • Non-forceful action is futile • Criticism of weak, bloated government’s lack of direction • The ‘sword of the people’ • Classical references: Powerful leaders of Hannibal Barcaand Mithrindates

  8. APPEALING TO FEAR • Appealed to fears of disorder, vigilante justice, crime • Old suspicions and mistrust brought back: merchant classes, foreigners • Dispelling of the idea that the economy was in the process of stabilising

  9. VISION OF FOR A REPUBLICAN UTOPIA • Virtue and morality in government • Sovereignty through direct participatory democracy and suitable representation • The people are inherently good with inalienable fundamental rights • Revolutionary change as a moral matter • Fight to end of Revolution

  10. IMPORTANCE OF THE LAW • Lawyer by profession • Believed the regeneration of France lay in strong laws • Legal authority to achieve equality • Proposed amendments to judicial system, laws on freedoms and Déclaration

  11. ONE WITH THE PEOPLE • Representative of the people • Revolutionary camaraderie in language • In keeping with principle of inherent goodness of people

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