AJacobin (/ˈdʒækəbɪn/;French pronunciation:[ʒakɔbɛ̃]) was a member of theJacobin Club, a revolutionary political movement that was the most famous political club during theFrench Revolution (1789–1799).[1] The club got its name from meeting at theDominicanrue Saint-Honoré Monastery of the Jacobins. The Dominicans in France were calledJacobins (Latin:Jacobus, corresponds toJacques in French andJack in English)[2] because their first house in Paris was theSaint Jacques Monastery.
The terms Jacobin andJacobinism have been used in a variety of senses. Prior to 1793, the terms were used by contemporaries to describe the politics of Jacobins in the congresses of 1789 through 1792. With the ascendancy ofMaximilien Robespierre and theMontagnards into 1793, they have since become synonymous with the policies of theReign of Terror, with Jacobinism now meaning "Robespierrism".[3] As Jacobinism was memorialized through legend, heritage, tradition and other nonhistorical means over the centuries, the term acquired a "semantic elasticity" in French politics of the late 20th Century with a "vague range of meanings", but all with the "central figure of a sovereign and indivisible public authority with power over civil society."[4] Today in France, Jacobin colloquially indicates an ardent or republican supporter of acentralized and revolutionary democracy or state[5][6] as well as "a politician who is hostile to any idea of weakening and dismemberment of the State."[7]
The Jacobin Club was one of several organizations that grew out of the French Revolution and it was distinguished for itsleft-wing, revolutionary politics.[8][9] Because of this, the Jacobins, unlike other sects such as theGirondins (who were originally part of the Jacobins, but branched off), were closely allied to thesans-culottes, who were a popular force of working-class Parisians that played a pivotal role in the development of the revolution.
The Jacobins had a significant presence in theNational Convention; they were dubbed "the mountain" or Montagnards for their seats in the uppermost part of the chamber. Eventually, the Revolution coalesced aroundThe Mountain's power, with the help of the insurrections of the sans-culottes, and, led by Robespierre, the Jacobins established a revolutionary dictatorship, or the joint domination of theCommittee of Public Safety andCommittee of General Security.
The Jacobins were known for creating a strong government that could deal with the needs of war, economic chaos, as well as internal rebellion (such as thewar in the Vendée). This included establishing the world's first universalmilitary draft as a solution to filling army ranks to put down civil unrest and prosecute war.[10][11] The Jacobin dictatorship was known for enacting the Reign of Terror, which targeted speculators,monarchists, right-wingGirondin,Hébertists, and traitors, and led to many beheadings.
The Jacobins supported the rights of property, but represented a much more middle-class position than the government that succeeded them inThermidor.
They favored free trade and a market economy much like the Girondists, but their relationship to the people made them more willing to adopt interventionist economic policies.[8]: 81–82 Unlike the Girondins, their economic policy favoredprice controls (i.e.,General maximum) on staples like grain and select household and grocery goods to address economic problems.[10] Using thearmée revolutionnaire, they targeted farmers, the rich and others who may have stocks of essential goods ("goods of the first necessity") in service of a national distribution system with severe punishment for uncooperative hoarders.[12]
Another tenet of Jacobinism is asecularism that includes the elimination of existing religions in favor of one run by the state (i.e., the cults ofReason andthe Supreme Being).[13][14]
Jacobinism was as an ideology thus developed and implemented during the French Revolution of 1789. In the words ofFrançois Furet, inPenser la révolution française (quoted by Hoel inIntroduction au Jacobinisme...), "Jacobinism is both an ideology and a power: a system of representations and a system of action." ("le jacobinisme est à la fois une idéologie et un pouvoir : un système de représentations et un système d'action"). Its political goals were largely achieved later during France'sThird Republic.[15]
Jacobinism did not end with the Jacobins. The RobespierristFrançois-Noël Babeuf eventually rejected the rule of the Jacobins and welcomed the end of the Terror.[16] However, he later eschewed theThermidorean Reaction that overthrew the Jacobins and he returned to Robespierrism.[16] In May 1796, he led a failedcoup d'état with neo-Robespierrists to attempt to return the republic to theMontagnard Constitution of 1793 in theConspiracy of Equals.[17][18] His political ideology was a form of neo-Jacobinism and primordialcommunism that highlighted egalitarian division of all land and property enforced by a dictatorship run by the Equals.[19] His ideas were widely publicized and further developed as "Babeuvism" by colleagueFilippo Buonaroti in his 1828 book,Histoire de la Conspiration Pour l'Égalité Dite de Babeuf (History of Babeuf's Conspiracy for Equality).[20]
Friedrich Engels andKarl Marx called the Conspiracy of Equals "the first appearance of a truly active Communist party."[21][20]Leon Trotsky echoed these sentiments, stating that the foundation of theCommunist International marked a "carrying on in direct succession the heroic endeavours and martyrdom of a long line of revolutionary generations from Babeuf."[22]
Himself a Robespierrist,[23] Buonaroti went on to writeObservations sur Maximilien Robespierre in 1836, which extolled the Jacobin leader as a legend and hero. His portrayal of Robespierre as a model for socialist revolutionaries greatly influenced young socialists and republicans, such asAlbert Laponneraye.[24]
The 19th centurysocialist firebrand,nationalist and founder ofBlanquism,Louis Auguste Blanqui expressed admiration for Jacobin leaders of the Terror like Robespierre andLouis Antoine de Saint-Just, framing them in messianic terms.[25][26][27][28] There is evidence that his principles were also instructed by Babeuvism through his familiarity with Buonarroti.[29] After theFrench Revolution of 1848, he criticized contemporaries who claimed to be heirs of Jacobinism, writing: "Our own self-styled Montagnards are a caricature, indeed a very poor copy, of the Girondins."[25][30] His view of Robespierre later changed over an understanding of the Terror's executions ofGeorges Danton and theHébertists, as well as the formation of the Cult of the Supreme Being, the latter due to Blanqui's promotion ofmaterialism andatheism.[25][31] According to Blanqui, the Hebertists were the true revolutionaries in defending atheism, science and equality.[25][31] He said that socialism needed to be built on the foundations laid by the French Revolution, and would better defend the ideals ofthe Enlightenment than Jacobinism, adding the toast, "Citizens, the Mountain is dead! To socialism, its sole heir!"[25][28]
Various French left-wing parties would claim to be the "true heirs" to the French Revolution and the 1871Paris Commune.[32] Aspects of Blanqui were likewise claimed by French political groups like theRadical Socialists and theStalinists.[32] Other organizations included the FrenchCentral Revolutionary Committee and its successor, theSocialist Revolutionary Party, and the Blanquist section of the International Workingmen's Association orFirst International.
On 4 October 1919,Alexandre Varenne founded the socialist dailyLa Montagne, Quotidien de la Démocratie Socialiste du Center.[33] The title was selected to reflect its alignment with the ideas of the Montagnards.[33]
In the 1930s, thePopular Front coalition included theFrench Communist Party orParti communiste français (PCF), who along with portions of the alliance's socialistFrench Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) party increasingly emphasized patriotism.[34] The PCF were characterized as "New Jacobins", and their leaderMaurice Thorez as a "Stalinist Jacobin".[34]
On the French right, the nazi-collaborating founder ofNeosocialismMarcel Déat was known to be inspired by Jacobin politics.[35]
In 1794, Frenchmen in theKingdom of Mysore allegedly established the "Jacobin Club of Mysore" with the assistance of its rulerTipu Sultan, who purportedly declared himself "Citizen Tipoo".[36] During the subsequentFourth Anglo-Mysore War of 1799, British forces captured French volunteers led byFrançois Ripaud who were serving under Mysorean command.[37] French historian Jean Boutier argued that senior officials of theEast India Company fabricated the club's existence to justify their war against Mysore.[38]
Blanquism had a notable influence onBenito Mussolini who foundedfascism as an outgrowth ofrevolutionary socialism.[39] He claimed he "introduced into Italian socialism something of(Henri) Bergson mixed with much of Blanqui," including Blanqui's nationalism, the idea of rule by a dominant minority and use of violence.[25] However, Mussolini dispensed with Blanquism's links to the Enlightenment and communism and instead stated, fascism is "opposed to all individualistic abstractions based on eighteenth century materialism; and it is opposed to all Jacobinistic utopias and innovations."[25][40] The masthead of his newspaperIl Popolo d'Italia carried quotes from Blanqui ("Whoever has steel has bread") andNapoleon Bonaparte ("The Revolution is an idea which has found bayonets!").[41]Leon Trotsky called fascism in a sense "a caricature of Jacobinism".[42]
King Stanisław II August was enamored with theAmerican Constitution, the ideals of the Gironde of 1790–1792, and the office ofRoi Citoyen ("Citizen King").[43][44] He helped develop the1791 Polish Constitution which embraced social reforms guaranteeing "the freedom, property and equality of every citizen."[43] Its ratification led some Society of the Friends of the Constitution chapters to endorse the King and hisRzeczypospolita and helped shape theFrench constitution adopted later that year.[43][45]
While the Constitutionalists had contacts with Jacobin Clubs, they were expressly not Jacobins.[46] However prior to the 1792 war that crushed the republic, Russian EmpressCatherine the Great claimed the constitution was the work of the Jacobins and that she would be "fighting Jacobinism in Poland" and "the Jacobins of Warsaw".[37][43][46]
The 1870s saw the emergence of the "Worker's Marseillaise", a Russian revolutionary song set to aRobert Schumann melody inspired by the 1792 "Marseillaise".[47] It was used as a national anthem by theRussian Provisional Government and inSoviet Russia for a short time alongside "The Internationale".[48]
In the early 20th Century,Bolshevism and Jacobinism were linked.[49] Russia's notion of the French Revolution permeated educated society and was reflected in speeches and writings of leaders, includingLeon Trotsky andVladimir Lenin.[50][51] They modeled theirrevolution after the Jacobins and the Terror with Trotsky even envisioning a trial forNicholas II akin to that forLouis XVI.[52] Lenin regarded the execution of the formertsar and his immediate family as necessary, highlighting the precedent set in the French Revolution.[53] At the same time, the Bolsheviks consciously tried to avoid the mistakes they saw made by the French revolutionaries.[52]
Lenin referred to Robespierre as a "Bolshevikavant la lettre" anderected a statue to him.[54][55] Other statues were planned or erected of other prominent members of the Terror as well as Babeuf.[56] The Voskresenskaya Embankment in St. Petersburg was also renamedNaberezhnaya Robespera for the French leader in 1923; it was returned to its original name in 2014.[57]
LikeKarl Marx, Lenin saw the overall progress in events in France from 1789 through 1871 as the French Bourgeois Revolution.[58] He adhered to the Montagnards' policies of centralization of authority to stabilize a new state, the virtue and necessity of terror against oppressors and "an alliance between the proletariat and peasantry" ("the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasants").[59] He would refer to his side as the Mountain or Jacobin and label hisMenshevik opponents as the "Gironde".[60]
The conventionalized scrawny, French revolutionarysans-culottes Jacobin, was developed from about 1790 by Britishsatirical artistsJames Gillray,Thomas Rowlandson andGeorge Cruikshank. It was commonly contrasted with the stolid stocky conservative and well-meaningJohn Bull, dressed like an English country squire.C. L. R. James also used the term to refer to revolutionaries during theHaitian Revolution in his bookThe Black Jacobins.
Thomas Paine was a believer in the French Revolution and supported the Girondins. At the same time,Protestant Dissenters seeking for relief from theTest and Corporation Acts supported the French Revolution at least in its early stages after seeing concessions to religious minorities by the French authorities in 1787 and in theDeclaration of Rights of Man.[61] Paine's publications enjoyed support by Painite Radical factions like the Manchester Constitutional Society. Prominent members of the Society who worked for the RadicalManchester Herald newspaper even contacted the Jacobin Club in France on 13 April 1792. Thus, Radicals were labeledJacobins by their opponents.[62] Regional Painite radicalism was incorrectly portrayed as English Jacobinism and were attacked by Conservative forces includingEdmund Burke as early as 1791.[63] The LondonRevolution Society also corresponded with the National Assembly starting in November 1789. Their letters were circulated among the regional Jacobin clubs, with around 52 clubs corresponding with the society by the spring of 1792.[64] Other regional British revolutionary societies formed in centers of British Jacobinism.[65] English Jacobins included the youngSamuel Taylor Coleridge,William Wordsworth and others prior to their disillusionment with the outbreak of theReign of Terror. Others, such as Paine,William Hazlitt andWhig statesmanCharles James Fox, remained idealistic about the Revolution.
TheLondon Corresponding Society founded in 1792 was partly modeled on the Jacobins to pressure the government in a law-abiding manner for democratic reform.[66] Scottish chapters of theSocieties of the Friends of the People pressed for parliamentary reform at the 1792 Scottish Convention in Edinburgh using explicit imitations of the Jacobins.[66]
Overall, after 1793 with the sidelining of the Girondins and the Terror, "Jacobin" became a pejorative forradicalleft-wing revolutionary politics[67] and was linked to sedition.[68] The word was further promoted in England byGeorge Canning's 1797–98 newspaperAnti-Jacobin and later,John Gifford's 1798–1821Anti-Jacobin Review, which both criticized theEnglish Radicals of the 18th and 19th centuries. Much detail on English Jacobinism can be found inE. P. Thompson'sThe Making of the English Working Class.
Welsh Jacobins includeWilliam Jones, a radical patriot who was a keen disciple ofVoltaire. Rather than preaching revolution, Jones believed that an exodus from Wales was required and that a new Welsh colony should be founded in the United States.[69]
ThesocialistChartist movement in the first half of the 19th Century was inspired by Robespierre.[3] Chartist leaderJames Bronterre O'Brien defended Robespierre, describing him as "one of the greatest men, and one of the purest and most enlightened reformers, that ever existed in the world."[70][71] He came to Robespierre through his studies of Buonarroti[3] and even served as Buonarroti's translator for the English edition ofBuanarroti's History of Babeuf's Conspiracy for Equality, for which he further included his own observations.[72]
In the correspondence of Austrian statesman and diplomatPrince Klemens von Metternich and other leaders of the repressive policies that followed the second fall ofNapoleon in 1815,Jacobin is the term commonly applied to anyone with progressive tendencies, such as the emperorAlexander I of Russia.[73]
Federalists often characterizedThomas Jefferson, who himself had intervened in the French Revolution,[74] and hisDemocratic-Republican party as Jacobins.[75] EarlyFederalist-leaning American newspapers during the French Revolution referred to the Democratic-Republican party as the "Jacobin Party".[76] The most notable examples are theGazette of the United States, published in Philadelphia, and theDelaware and Eastern-Shore Advertiser, published in Wilmington, during the elections of 1800.[citation needed]
In modern American politics, the term Jacobin is often used to describe extremists of any party who demand ideological purity.[77]
Evidencing the antagonistic relationship between the press and insurgentArizona conservative presidential candidateBarry Goldwater,[78][79][80]The New York Times attacked Goldwater in theirBastille Day coverage of the1964 Republican National Convention. The paper called his supporters "Cactus Jacobins", comparing their opposition to "establishment"Eastern Republicans (seeRockefeller Republican) and "sensation‐seeking columnists and commentators" as expressed by moderate former presidentDwight Eisenhower to the execution of representatives of theAncien Régime in the Reign of Terror.[81] In contrast,L. Brent Bozell, Jr. has written in Goldwater's seminalThe Conscience of a Conservative (1960) that "Throughout history,true Conservatism has been at war equally with autocrats and with 'democratic' Jacobins."[82]
In 2010 an American left-wingsocialist publication,Jacobin, was founded.[83][84]
On 27 May 2010 issue ofThe New York Review of Books,Columbia university political science and humanities professor and self-describedliberal[85]Mark Lilla analyzed three recent books dealing with American political party discontent in a review titled "The Tea Party Jacobins".[86] On the other side, historianVictor Davis Hanson likened the rise and policies of leftists in theDemocratic Party in 2019 to the Jacobins and Jacobinism.[87]
The politicalrhetoric andpopulist ideas espoused by the Jacobins would lead to the development of the modernleftist movements throughout the 19th and 20th century, with Jacobinism being the political foundation of almost all leftist schools of thought includinganarchism,communism andsocialism.[88][89][90] TheParis Commune was seen as the revolutionary successor to the Jacobins.[91][92] The undercurrent of radical and populist tendencies espoused and enacted by the Jacobins would create a complete cultural and societal shock within the traditional and conservative governments of Europe, leading to new political ideas of society emerging. Jacobin rhetoric would lead to increasing secularization and skepticism towards the governments of Europe throughout the 1800s.[93] This complex and complete revolution in political, societal and cultural structure, caused in part by the Jacobins, had lasting impact throughout Europe, with such societal revolutions throughout the 1800s culminating in theRevolutions of 1848.[94][95]
Jacobin populism and complete structural destruction of the old order led to an increasingly revolutionary spirit throughout Europe and such changes would contribute to new political foundations. It also informed new political ideologies. For instance in France,Georges Valois, founder of the first non-Italian fascist partyFaisceau,[96] claimed the roots offascism stemmed from the Jacobin movement.[97] While fascism bears similarities to Jacobinism particularly as a democratic nationalism fighting against an existing order, it is difficult to directly trace such lineage.[98] Fascist groups themselves have held a variety of opinions mostly negative about the French Revolution, with the GermanNational Socialists straightforwardly condemning it.[98] Italian fascists called on fascism to surpass the French Revolution "with a new kind of democracy run by producers."[99] Some French fascists were ambivalent or admired parts of Jacobinism and the Revolution.[100] Valois on the other hand saw the Revolution as the start of a movement both socialist and nationalist, which fascists would complete.[101]
Leftist organizations would take different elements from Jacobin's core foundation. Anarchists took influence from the Jacobins use ofmass movements,direct democracy andleft-wing populism which would influence the tactics ofdirect action.[citation needed] SomeMarxists would take influence from the extreme protectionism of the Jacobins and the notion of the vanguard defender of the republic which would later evolve intovanguardism.[citation needed] The Jacobin philosophy of a complete dismantling of an old system, with completely radical and new structure, is historically seen as one of the most revolutionary and important movements throughout modern history.[89][93][95]
The semantic elasticity of the term in late twentieth-century French politics attests to the work of time. 'Jacobinism' or 'Jacobin' can now refer to a wide range of predilections: indivisible national sovereignty, a state role in the transformation of society, centralization of the government and bureaucracy, equality among citizens guaranteed by uniformity of the law, regeneration through education in republican schools, or simply an anxious concern for national independence. This vague range of meanings is still dominated, however, by the central figure of a sovereign and indivisible public authority with power over civil society [...].
After 1793 'Girondin' and 'Jacobin' increasingly became keywords in the period's culture wars [...] Conservative publicists inflated 'Jacobin' into an all-purpose insult or epithet used to tar all progressive ideas as dangerously subversive
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Phillips, Walter Alison (1911). "Jacobins, The". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 119.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)The makers of the new conservatism's revolution will put the press to the guillotine, too, if the fervor of the demonstration was any guide to their mood.
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