Western Civilization II / Unit 7 WC2 0630 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Reading the Declaration of the Rights of Man
The idea
The exam quotes an article and asks what it establishes or whose idea it carries. To read the Declaration of August seventeen eighty-nine, ask of any article two questions: what does it deny the old order, and which philosophe's idea does it enact. The text read is the Avalon Project's.
In practice
Four articles, paraphrased. Article one: men are born and remain free and equal in rights, and social distinctions may rest only on the general good. Denied: rank by birth, the society of orders; the idea is Locke's equality. Article three: sovereignty resides in the nation, and no body or individual may exercise authority not proceeding from it. Denied: divine right and the king's person as the state; the idea is Rousseau's and Sieyès's nation. Article six: law is the expression of the general will, the same for all, and all citizens are equally eligible to every office according to their talents. Denied: noble monopoly of office; the ideas are Rousseau's general will and the Enlightenment's careers open to talent. Article seven: no one may be accused, arrested or imprisoned except as the law prescribes. Denied: arbitrary imprisonment; the idea is Beccaria's.
Where people slip
The Declaration is principles, not a constitution, as the witness says, and it names no king. A passage on the nation as the source of all authority is this document, not the American one.
Your place on the trail
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Unlocks
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