法国大革命前夕社会状况分析——从托克维尔《旧制度与大革命》谈起

An Analysis of Social Conditions before French Revolution: Based on Tocqueville’s The Old Regime and the Revolution

托克维尔《旧制度与大革命》分析了法国大革命前夕的社会状况,形成研究革命与社会运动的"变迁、结构、话语"三大要素。社会变迁主要集中在关注发展型相对剥夺。大革命前几十年的繁荣刺激了人们的欲望,旧制度无法满足持续上升的需求,人们就产生相对剥夺感而趋向变革。社会结构分为中央集权政治结构和分裂的阶层关系,导致整个国家缺乏中间地带的缓冲和各阶层的整合,革命将君主制顷刻毁灭。话语上,流行的"文学政治"要求自由和平等,激起人们的变革热忱,却因过于理想化而脱离政治实际,缺乏革新社会的切实规划。

The Old Regime and the Revolution by Tocqueville analyzes the social conditions before the French Revolution according to the three factors of studies on revolution and social movement： social changes, structure and discourse. The discussion about social changes is mainly related to the relative deprivation during a period of eco- nomic growth. Before the revolution, decades of prosperity stimulated peoples~ desires, and when the old social system couldn＇t satisfy the needs for growth, people developed the feeling of deprivation and then intended to have the revolution. Social structure was divided in two parts： centralism and the split relations of classes. Consequently, the revolution destroyed the monarchy immediately for the whole nation lacked a middle zone as a cushion or the effective organization of all the classes. In discourse, the popular literary politics emphasized freedom and equality, which encouraged revolution. However, it was actually a Utopia, lacking the concrete plans for revolution and a new society.