課程研讀 不同思潮的震盪 (1815-1848)
Principles of Conservatism
At the Congress of Vienna and in the Restoration generally, the most important guiding
concept was legitimacy. It might be best understood as a code word for the antirevolutionary political order that the Congress sought to impose. Conservatives aimed
to make legitimate—and thus to solidify—both the monarchy’s authority and the
hierarchical social order undermined by the French Revolution. They believed that the
monarchy guaranteed political stability, that the nobility were the rightful leaders of the
nation, and that both needed to play active and effective roles in public life.
Conservatives believed that change had to be slow, incremental, and managed so as to
strengthen rather than weaken the structures of authority. Conserving the past and
cultivating tradition would ensure an orderly future.
Nationalism
Of all the political ideologies of the early nineteenth century, nationalism is most
difficult to grasp. What, exactly, counted as a nation? Who demanded a nation, and
what did their demand mean? In the early nineteenth century, nationalism was usually
aligned with liberalism against the conservative states that dominated Europe after
Napoleon’s fall. As the century progressed, however, it became increasingly clear that
nationalism could be molded to fit any doctrine.
The meaning of nations has changed over time. The term comes from the Latin verb
nasci, “to be born,” and suggests “common birth”. In sixteenth-century England, the
nation designated the aristocracy, or those who shared noble birthright. The French
nobility also referred to itself as a nation. Those earlier and unfamiliar usages are
important. They highlight the most significant development of the late eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries: the French Revolution redefined nation to mean “the
sovereign people.” The revolutionaries of 1789 boldly claimed that the nation, and no
longer the king, was the sovereign power. On a more concrete level, the revolutionaries
built a nation state, a national army, and a national legal system whose jurisdiction
trumped the older regional powers of the nobility and local courts. In the aftermath of
the French Revolution of 1789, the nation became what one historian calls “the
collective image of modern citizenry.”
Source: Joshua Cole and Carol Symes, Western Civilization Volume Two: Their History & Their
Culture (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2017), p.542; 547.