Against absolutist monarchies claiming divine right, democrats
opposed the idea of a state created by a social contract among free and
rational men.^21 Anchored in reason and popular will, this new state
would be much less likely to seek wars than the old regimes. “The
spirit of monarchy is war and enlargement of dominion,” wrote
Montesquieu in 1748, “peace and moderation are the spirit of a
republic.”^22 Republics, explained German philosopher Immanuel Kant,
favor peace because they are based on reason and popular consent. “If
the consent of the citizens is required in order to decide that war
should be declared,” he argued in hisProject for a Perpetual Peace
(1795), “nothing is more natural than that they would be very cau-
tious in commencing such a poor game, decreeing for themselves all
the calamities of war....But, on the other hand, in a constitution
which is not republican, and under which the subjects are not citizens,
a declaration of war is the easiest thing in the world to decide upon,
because war does not require of the ruler, who is the proprietor and
not a member of the state, the least sacrifice of the pleasures of his
table, the chase, his country houses, his court functions, and the like.”^23
For the left, war was “rooted in the vested interests of the ruling
classes.”^24 As such, it would be difficult to vanquish, even though it
appeared “inherently evil and often also foolish.”^25 In a world marred
by inequality and ruled by “the law of the strongest,” noted Jean-
Jacques Rousseau in his ownProject towards a Perpetual Peace(1760),
reason, justice, and peace would not prevail easily. Initiating a long
intellectual and political tradition, Rousseau insisted that equality
constituted a prerequisite for peace.^26
These views about reason, equality, democracy, and peace were
pre-eminent in revolutionary France. Threatened by the monarchies of
Europe, the French Constituent Assembly did prepare for war, but the
(^21) Torbjo ̈rn L. Knutsen,A History of International Relations Theory, Manchester
22 University Press, 1992, p. 103.
Charles de Secondat Montesquieu,Spirit of the Laws,quotedinMichael
23 Howard,War and the Liberal Conscience, Oxford University Press, 1978, p. 25.
Immanuel Kant,Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch, 1795
24 (www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/kant/kant1.htm).
25 Howard,War and the Liberal Conscience, p. 27.
Bernard Brodie, “The Continuing Relevance ofOn War,” in Carl von
Clausewitz,On War, ed. and trans. Michael Howard and Peter Paret, Princeton
University Press, 1984, p. 48.
(^26) Knutsen,A History of International Relations Theory, pp. 113–27.
90 Left and Right in Global Politics