ABSTRACT
In France, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's view of man and his vision of a new society spread quickly and soon became a powerful political force. It was espoused with increasing militancy by the Jacobin clubs, which saw themselves as incorruptible guardians of universal principles. The moral and ideological fervor of the Jacobins played a crucial role before and during the French Revolution. The new Jacobins are more accepting of existing society than the old Jacobins, for they regard today's Western democracy as the result of great moral, social and political progress since the eighteenth century. A sign of the power of the new Jacobinism is that it is well represented across the political-intellectual spectrum. It is common among liberals and socialists, many of whom consciously trace their own ideological lineage to French Revolution. The person commonly regarded as father of modern conservatism, the British statesman and thinker Edmund Burke focused his scorching critique of the French Revolution precisely on Jacobin thinking.
