ABSTRACT
Revolutions are melancholy moments of history. The brief gasp of hope remains submerged in misery and disillusionment. This is true for the great revolutions, like that of 1789 in France or of 1917 in Russia, but applies to some lesser political upheavals as well. Revolutions are not just extreme expressions of protest, but assertions of new modes of social organization. As a rule, the two revolutions of modernity do not merge into one event, nor is there one theory to explain them both. The elements of a theory of change by revolution have to do with the two faces of modernity, with the burghers, or bourgeois, and the citoyens, or citizens. The concept of life chances is thus central for our understanding of modernity as for any liberal theory. It is, at the same time, not a simple concept. More life chances for more people are the objective of the politics of liberty.
