Modern War and the Decline of the Old Regime, 1763-1856
© 2001 Brian M. Downing
The basis of democratization is everywhere purely military in character. . . . Military discipline meant the triumph of democracy because the community wished and was compelled to secure the cooperation of the non-aristocratic masses and hence put arms, and along with arms political power, into their hands.
Max Weber (General Economic History)
The study of democratic development generally looks at recent transitions from authoritarian and communist regimes. This is understandable in light of events of the last few decades, but, ironically, democracy’s origins in Europe are still not well understood. A wide array of thinkers, from across the political spectrum, and from many different periods of time, once generally agreed that rising bourgeoisies reformed state and society by building representative assemblies, the rule of law, and citizenship rights.
To most historians, this “bourgeois-revolution” thesis is lifeless, but nothing has taken its place, and its specter haunts the study of Europe. In recent years, important works have looked explored the nature of revolutions in the early modern world, but have shed little light on the process of liberalization. It is argued here that many liberal reforms credited to and claimed by bourgeoisies were products of aristocrat-dominated states responding to the demands of late eighteenth-century warfare. Furthermore, wars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were themselves powerful engines of change, which brought broadly-based pressure for continued reform.
(I thank my late colleague and friend Barrington Moore, Jr. for helpful comments on this article.)