Editing Benjamin Constant (section)

===Critique of the French Revolution===
Constant criticised several aspects of the [[French Revolution]], and the failures of the social and political upheaval. He stated how the French attempted to apply ancient republican liberties to a modern state. Constant realized that freedom meant drawing a line between a person's private life and that of state interference.<ref name="Rosenblatt 2004">Rosenblatt 2004</ref> He praised the noble spirit of regenerating the state; however, he stated that it was naïve for writers to believe that two thousand years had not brought some changes in the customs and needs of the people. The dynamics of the state had changed. Ancient populations paled in comparison to the size of modern countries. He even argued that with a large population, man had no role in government regardless of its form or type. Constant emphasised how citizens in ancient states found more satisfaction in the public sphere and less in their private lives whereas modern people favoured their private life.

Constant's repeated denunciation of [[despotism]] pervaded his critique of French political philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and [[Abbé de Mably]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bertholet|first=Auguste|date=2021|title=Constant, Sismondi et la Pologne|url=https://www.slatkine.com/fr/editions-slatkine/75250-book-05077807-3600120175625.html|journal=Annales Benjamin Constant|volume=46|pages=65–85}}</ref> These writers, influential in the French Revolution, according to Constant, mistook authority for liberty and approved any means of extending the action of the state. Alleged reformers used the model of public force of the [[Ancien Régime]], and organised the most absolute despotism in the name of the Republic. He continually condemned despotism, citing the contradiction of a liberty derived from despotism, and the vacuous nature of this ideology.

Furthermore, Constant pointed to the detrimental nature of the [[Reign of Terror]] as an inexplicable delirium. In [[François Furet]]'s words, Constant's "entire political thought" revolved around this question, namely the problem of how to justify the Terror.<ref>Furet 1981, p. 27</ref> Constant understood the revolutionaries' disastrous over-investment in the political sphere.<ref name="Rosenblatt 2004" /> The French revolutionaries such as the [[Sans-culottes]] were the primary force in the streets. They promoted constant vigilance in public. Constant pointed out how despite the most obscure life, the quietest existence, the most unknown name, it offered no protection during the Reign of Terror. The pervasive [[mob mentality]] deterred many right thinking people and helped to usher in despots such as Napoleon.