自由革命的专制命运：托克维尔的未完成革命著述

托克维尔在关于法国大革命与拿破仑的未完成著述中讨论了大革命中自由和平等的张力以及革命的政治动力。在作为大革命第一阶段的1787-1789年的自由革命中，由激进的民主自由观念推动的阶级斗争逐步压倒了贵族自由和精英自由观念。王权的削弱和相关的错误决策加剧了阶级斗争并强化了革命意识形态，民众暴力的介入推动了革命的激进化，导致革命在内部分裂和权力斗争中走向恐怖。大革命后期，法国人既厌倦革命和政治的动荡，又热爱革命带来的平等和利益，继承了革命平等而抛弃了自由的拿破仑得到了法国人的拥戴。同时，托克维尔揭示了革命和拿破仑的个人统治如何继承了旧制度的政治文化遗产，特别是国家主义。

The Despotic Destiny of a Revolution of Liberty: Tocqueville’s Unfinished Writings on the French Revolution

In his unfinished writings about the French Revolution and Napoleon, Tocqueville analyzed the tension between liberty and equality and the political dynamics of the Revolution. During the liberal revolution from 1787 to 1789 which was the first period of the French Revolution, the class struggle provoked by the radical idea of democratic liberty gradually defeated the ideas of the aristocratic and elitist liberty. The weakening of the royal power and its wrong decisions aggravated the class struggle and strengthened the revolutionary ideology. The popular violence which pushed the radicalization of the Revolution created divisions in the camp of revolution which with the struggle for power brought the reign of Terror. During the late period of the French Revolution, the French people grew disgusted by the instability caused by revolution while enjoying the equality and advantages brought about by the Revolution. As a result, Napoleon Bonaparte who had assumed the equality of the Revolution and abandoned its pursuit of liberty was supported by the French people. Besides the analysis of the revolutionary process and dynamics, Tocqueville’s writings on the French Revolution confirmed his thesis in The Old Regime and the Revolution about the continuity between the Old Regime, the French Revolution and Napoleonic rule. French revolutionaries unwittingly inherited the political culture of Statism and the administrative centralization which dominated the Old Regime,while at the same time they destroyed aristocratic and feudal elements that could resist the absolute power. The French people accomplished the Revolution with the aid of the Old Regime and constructed a state and a centralization that was much more powerful than those autocrats during pre-1789 French history.