Book, Freedom of the Ancients Compared to that of the Moderns, A 1/15[LS]

In the contemporary world, freedom and the human being are like Siamese twins, which emerge and develop viscerally connected to each other. This is a right so ingrained in the reality of democratic States that, often, like what happens with oxygen, we only realize its importance when we lack it. What we see naturally on the threshold of the third millennium was something foreign to the reality of the French people at the end of the 18th century. The French Revolution was known to be a transformative process. And the recognition of individual rights, with special emphasis on freedom, was one of the main legacies he left. Benjamin Constant was a young intellectual when events took place, knowing, in practice, the destructive potential of absolutism. The maturation of his ideas and ideals led him to deliver, in 1819, at just over fifty years of age and with the status of an established public man, the famous speech entitled De la liberté des anciens comparée a celle des modernes. What made his speech famous in the history of political thought was his ability to demonstrate the evolutionary line of political freedom and individual freedom, as well as the strict connection they maintain between them. The first freedom, typical of the ancients, ensured the free participation of all citizens in charting the State's destinies. Despite contributing to the formation of political will, the citizen, conceived in his individuality, did not have rights that could be opposable to the State, with which he maintained relations of mere subjection. The second freedom is that known to modern people, which is nothing more than a safe conduct to the expansion of the individual personality, including the right to influence the administration of the government, and a limitation on the actions of others, the State or third parties. Individual freedom is modern freedom, while political freedom is its guarantee. The danger of ancient freedom was the little attention given to individual rights, while the danger of modern freedom is that, absorbed by private interests, we renounce the right to participate in political power. Source of reference for understanding individual freedom and the instrumental nature of the rights of political participation, worthy of being known by everyone interested in the subject, students or law practitioners.