Professor Aurelian Craiutu talks about the works of François Guizot: l'Histoire de la civilisation en Europe and l'Histoire de l'origine des gouvernements représentatifs en Europe.
(Liberty Fund video)
The French political philosopher and historian François Guizot (1787-1874) was one of the French doctrinaires, thinkers who sought to avoid the interpretations of the Revolution put forward by the extreme left or right. He argued that to understand the nature of political institutions, we must first study society, its composition, its mores and the relations between the different classes. At the very heart of his theory is the principle of the sovereignty of reason. In «The History of Representative Government in Europe», Aurelian Craiutu, professor of political science at Indiana University, writes in the introduction: «A quick glance at the table of contents shows the originality of this unusual book: it combines a long narrative chapters full of historical detail with theoretical chapters in which Guizot reflects on the principles, aims and institutions of representative government. «