The French Revolution and Its Legacy

This book offers an interpretation of the French Revolution and modern democracy, arguing that the revolution gave rise to a democratic power that is liminal by nature, and therefore unlimited, unaccountable on principle, and the basis for a state religion of continuous transformation. It demonstrates these claims by focusing on the universally adulated but little understood sacred motto 'liberté, egalité, fraternité', and on the sacrifice and role of Louis XVI in the revolution. Analysing the revolutionary process by which representative democratic government took the shape of political metamorphosis, the book shows that modern democracy does not represent the people but refers to the representation of representation and the existential condition of permanent displacement. The present study will appeal to scholars from across the social, political and human sciences with an interest in the French Revolution, modern democracy, political modernity, contemporary politics and the history of art.

Camil Francisc Roman is Lecturer in Political Science at John Cabot University. He is also Vice President of the International Political Anthropology Association and member of the Editorial Board of the journal International Political Anthropology. He is interested in reflexive, historical-genealogical and interpretative approaches to the following areas of research: modern democracy and revolutions, modernity and science, politics and religion. His latest publications include 'Sovereign power and the politics of the pandemic as elementary parasitic social relation' (2023) and 'Charisma: from divine gift to the democratic leader-shop' (2020). He is co-editor of Divinization and Technology. The Political Anthropology of Subversion (2019).