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Political Publicity and Political Economy in Eighteenth-Century France

2003; Oxford University Press; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/fh/17.1.1

1477-4542

Rosslyn Ives,

Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought

This article traces the development of the doctrine of political publicity in early modern France. It argues that writers concerned with the nascent science of politics, termed political economy, influenced by wider currents of Enlightenment thought, pioneered efforts to subject the workings of the ancien régime monarchy to sustained scrutiny. These efforts, though, clashed with a long‐established ethos of state secrecy; a clash addressed only thanks to the efforts of a mid‐century reform circle, led by Jacques‐Claude‐Marie Vincent de Gournay. He and his associates were responsible for framing the first effective calls for a public science of government; calls repeated thereafter by political economists, and the Physiocrats in particular, whenever the state tried to quash discussion. Whether in relation to matters of tax and trade, or finance and comptabilité, they urged publication. From public debate they hoped to discover the economic laws with which to constrain previously arbitrary rulers. In true Enlightenment fashion they believed that political publicity was the precursor to political rationality.