Abstract

The Author interpretes French liberalism from the point of view of the heritage of the French Revolution. This heritage appears to be on the one hand the primacy of civil law and, on the other, the 'socialising' constraint of the State. The latter process is completed by the work of administrative centralization carried out by the Empire. The Author then identifies two main currents within 19th century French liberalism: a liberalism on the side of the State, founded by Guizot and taken up again by the 'orleanist galaxy', and an 'individualistic' liberalism, which focuses on the political subject as source of judgement to which Constant belongs.