by the sacrifices of the Civil War. Largely because of Franco’s own prepara-
tions, Spain moved easily into a constitutional liberal monarchy on his death,
although there were initially a number of attempts atcoups d’e ́tatin his name
which he would almost certainly have rejected were he alive.
Fraternity
Fraternity (the better translation of the Frenchfraternite ́, the original political
occurrence, would be simply ‘brotherhood’) was one of the three slogans of
the French Revolution and subsequent regimes. Although the other two
values (liberte ́—seefreedomande ́galite ́—seeegalitarianism) are enshrined
in the ideologies of most Western states, fraternity is seldom referenced. Instead
the idea of brotherhood, with its implications of communal life and mutual
support and respect, has been found largely in the propaganda and ideology of
communist societies, or in the left-wing internationalist movements. It is a
value less clear perhaps than the other two, and certainly less commented on
and written about in political theory or philosophy. The main reason for its
relative exclusion is probably that, while equality and liberty are essentially
negative rights, in that they deny the government or others the right to do
certain things, or at least place burdens on the state, for example in achieving
equality, brotherhood actually demands positive actions from ordinary people.
This is not to suggest, cynically, that such a call would fail, but rather that
the structure of Western states, and the overall nature of their ideologies, is
geared away from such values and towards an individualism and rational self-
satisfaction that fits ill with such demands. As a revolutionary cry it was
splendid, but as a practical value in the French regimes that followed the
revolution it was harder to achieve. A modern version might be thought to be
the contemporary cry for a return to ‘community’ as a political value, itself a
consequence of the perceived failure of straightforward rational self interest as a
political doctrine.
Free Trade
Free trade is an international economic system in which no country sets tariff
barriers or other import controls against products from others, and in which
each country has an equal right to sell its own goods in those other countries in
the same terms as indigenous producers. There has probably never been a time
when total free trade existed since the development ofnation states, and
indeed not all nations have always had internal free trade between regions. In
practice alliances of nations have allowed varying degrees of freedom of trade
among themselves and put up collective barriers against other countries. Such
Fraternity