Ancient and modern Liberty | Benjamin Constant

Ancient vs Modern Liberty

Benjamin Constant in his article “the liberty of the ancient compare with that of the modern”  has described ancient and modern liberty and has also clarified the difference between it. He has tried to explain ancient freedom mainly in the context of Greek city-states like Sparta, Athens, Rumalia, and modern freedom in the context of France, America, and Britain.

Benjamin Constant speaks of a liberty “the exercise” which was dear to the ancients and a later kind of liberty (the Enjoyment) which was especially precious to modern states. They say that the participation of ancient people was in the form of a collective power while the participation of modern people was individual.

The liberty of the ancient people was an active and participatory liberty that could only be expressed collectively, mainly through war and peace, legal judgment, formalization, punishment, etc. 

Miller argues that this was attached the political liberty of Benjamin Constant to the ancient liberties. Benjamin Constant also talks about insecurity among ancient peoples which was the result of narrow territory while in modern freedom commerce and trade were encouraged due to large territory.

Freedom

Constant, there is a difference of opinion among thinkers regarding freedom. Thinkers have tried to define it from their own point of view: –

According to liberal thinkers (Hobbes, Locke): –  According to them the meaning of freedom is the “absence of impediments”. 

Rousseau:- “immunity from arbitrariness: political independence”

but freedom is related to those social, political, and moral, principles which govern man, exercise his free will, and make him responsible for his actions.

Frederic Bastiat says that “liberty should be seen as a cluster of freedom” that is, he was a French thinker, he explained how freedom is a cluster of freedom and in this regard, he spoke of three types of freedom –

He drew attention to one more point regarding freedom. It is that the freedom of an individual is in the Cluster of Freedoms only as long as it does not harm the freedom of others.

Hobbes– in his book “Leviathan”, the meaning of freedom has been told by the absence of external constraints.

Therefore, ancient thinkers have their own different opinion regarding freedom in this way. Benjamin Constant primarily tries to compare these ideas with modern ideas.

The difference between ancient and modern freedom

Benjamin Constant in his 1816 article, after a deep study and experience of ancient and modern freedom, has tried to clarify the difference between them –

Benjamin Constant believed that in ancient times the emphasis on collective freedom was given. In ancient times liberty was related to the public sphere. At the same time, the importance of the individual was in the form of a community but in modern times individual freedom has been emphasized.

In ancient times, there was no representative government, but there was a monarchy or an arbitrary dictatorial government. At that time religion had an important place in politics. Pope, Church, etc. had unlimited powers and people did not get religious freedom.

On the contrary, representative government is a modern invention. The meaning of liberty in ancient times was quite different from that of present-day representative government.

Benjamin Constant believed that due to the narrow geographical area in ancient times, there used to be a situation of war. As a result of which there used to be a feeling of insecurity, whereas in modern times the geographical areas are very large, which are much larger than Sparta and Rome. Here trade and commerce are given priority and through the advancement of commerce, religion, and morality, it is understood that every human being is born as a free citizen in the state.

In modern times there is no worry about insecurity because it becomes the duty of the state to protect the individual and it becomes the responsibility of the individual or the citizens of the state to serve and protect the state.

Modern Freedom

Benjamin Constant describes the following features of modern freedom-

Importance of law:- A person can be detained and punished only according to the law and not on the basis of the decision of any one person Feather.

A person has freedom of thought, expression, business, freedom to choose his religion, and personal use of the property. Thus in modern times, the emphasis is on individual freedom.

Freedom to go anywhere and do anything without anyone’s permission.

Freedom of people to form associations to discuss their interests and other issues.

Here people influence the administrative system of the government and here the government is also obstructed towards the citizens.

Ancient Freedom

Benjamin Constant has given the following features of ancient independence –

In ancient times decisions were given regarding war peace, legal judgment, ratification, and punishment on the basis of collectivity.

Miller  “introduction to liberty,” Benjamin Constant links ancient liberty with the liberty of the state in the following way:

He says that in ancient times only collective power was important and the individual got freedom only as a group. The person did not even have the freedom to choose thoughts, expressions, or actions. Here the individual was free in the public sector but (a “slave”) in the private sector. Being a collective body, he could not take decisions personally but be forced to observe all the circumstances.

Ancient freedom was limited and syncretic freedom. 

If we compare the ancient and modern states geographically, then in ancient times the size of the states was very small. There the size of the country with the most powerful population was not the same as that of the smallest states in modern times.

War was the main feature of these states, while modern states are also large in size and peace is the main concept of the modern state for this, these states also form organizations together.