ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to introduce the reader to the contrast between the political culture of the American Revolution and that of the French Revolution by means of a very simple exercise: a comparative reading of some chapters from The Federalist Papers, namely The Federalists Nos X and LI, written by James Madison, and The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. One of the distinctive features of Political Studies in continental Europe, both in secondary and university education, consists of presenting the 1789 French Revolution as the origin of modern democratic regimes. The 1776 American Revolution and the 1688 British 'Glorious Revolution' are practically ignored. When these are mentioned, the idea conveyed is that they were incipient manifestations of liberal and democratic ideals whose first full formulation would only occur in the 1789 French Revolution. Rousseau explicitly defined his aim and ambition as the discovery of a perfect solution for a political problem.